Decoupled heat and charge rectification as many-body effect in quantum wires

Abstract

We show that for a quantum wire with a local asymmetric scattering potential the principal channels for charge and heat rectification decouple and renormalize differently under electron interactions, with heat rectification generally being more relevant. The polarization of the rectification results from quantum interference and is tunable through external gating. Furthermore, for spin-polarized or helical electrons and sufficiently strong interactions a regime can be obtained in which heat transport is strongly rectified but charge rectification is very weak.