Improved Callaway model for Lattice Thermal Conductivity

In developing the phonon quasiparticle picture, Peierls discovered that, in a perfect crystal, without Umklapp (U) events, a current-carrying distribution can never relax to a zero-current distribution. Callaway introduced a simplified approximate model version of the Peierls-Boltzmann equation, retaining its the ability to deal separately with Normal (N) and U events. This paper clarifies and improves the Callaway model, and shows that Callaway underestimated the suppression of N-processes in relaxing thermal current. The new result should improve computations of thermal conductivity from relaxation-time studies.

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