Scattering approach to near-field radiative heat transfer

Matthias Hübler, Denis M. Basko, Wolfgang Belzig

Published 2024-11-06Version 1

We formulate an effective quantum scattering theory for the problem of near-field radiative heat transfer in linear electric circuits. Built from the same ingredients as the semiclassical fluctuational electrodynamics, the standard tool to handle this problem, our construction enables one to calculate arbitrary correlation functions of the energy current, while the fluctuational electrodynamics can be used only for the average current. We give a general expression for the energy current fluctuations in terms of the circuit's scattering matrix and show that it has an important non-dissipative contribution that can dominate the finite-frequency noise while being absent in the average current.