Abstract
A unified view on macroscopic thermodynamics and quantum transport is presented. Thermodynamic processes with an exchange of energy between two systems necessarily involve the flow of other balancable quantities. These flows are first analyzed using a simple drift-diffusion model, which includes the thermoelectric effects, and connects the various transport coefficients to certain thermodynamic susceptibilities and a diffusion coefficient. In the second part of the paper, the connection between macroscopic thermodynamics and quantum statistics is discussed. It is proposed to employ not particles, but elementary Fermi- or Bose-systems as the elementary building blocks of ideal quantum gases. In this way, the transport not only of particles but also of entropy can be derived in a concise way, and is illustrated both for ballistic quantum wires, and for diffusive conductors. In particular, the quantum interference of entropy flow is in close correspondence to that of electric current.
Highlights
Our goal is a self-contained description of transport processes in systems of indistinguishable particles, which does not contain elements incompatible with the statistical concepts of quantum physics
We propose to call these subsystems elementary Fermi- or Bose-systems [8], as they cannot be further decomposed into simpler subsystems
The concepts of thermodynamics first must be formulated in a way that avoids unnecessary limitations
Summary
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