The curious case of current noise in electron hydrodynamic flow
Prof. Aaron Hui
Department of Physics
Brown University
Experimental innovations in the past decade have uncovered a new mode of electron transport: strongly-interacting hydrodynamic flow. In this regime, the familiar spatial locality of Ohm’s law is replaced by the non-local, viscous flow dictated by the Stokes equations. Here, I consider the implications of this non-locality for noise thermometry, a technique by which random fluctuations of current are used to infer thermal properties of materials. I lay out our generalized theory of Johnson noise thermometry, showing how the hydrodynamic regime enables sensitivity beyond what is allowed by Ohm’s law. I also discuss ongoing experiments that use our theory to observe previously unnoticed features of hydrodynamic flow.
Hosted by Prof. Hsu