Eur. Phys. J.

B (2019) 92: 5
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2018-90524-7 THE EUROPEAN
PHYSICAL JOURNAL B
Regular Article

Thermal resonance and energy transport in a biharmonically

driven Frenkel–Kontorova lattice
Mauricio Romero-Bastida a and Santiago Guerrero-Gonzalez
SEPI ESIME-Culhuacán, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Av. Santa Ana No. 1000, Col. San Francisco Culhuacán,
Delegación Coyoacan, Distrito Federal 04430, México, Mexico

Received 30 August 2018 / Received in final form 12 November 2018

Published online 9 January 2019
c EDP Sciences / Società Italiana di Fisica / Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature,
2019

Abstract. In this work, we study the heat conduction properties of a one-dimensional Frenkel–Kontorova
lattice driven by an external, time-periodic biharmonic force applied locally at one boundary and in contact
with two heat reservoirs operating at different temperature by means of molecular dynamics simulations. In
the single-frequency externally driven case already studied it was observed that there is a value of the driving
frequency at which the heat flux takes its maximum value, a phenomenon termed as thermal resonance.
It was also determined that it is possible to direct the heat flow against the imposed temperature bias by
adjusting the frequency of the single harmonic driving force. With the implementation of the biharmonic
forcing we have explored the temperature range at which thermal resonance effect is present. Furthermore,
we have determined that by changing the relative amplitude of both harmonic components as well as the
frequency of the second, taken always as a multiple, not necessarily integer, of the first one, we can adjust
the frequency at which the studied effect is present in the proposed model.

1 Introduction desired pumping effect. Later this effect was obtained,

The desire to design and build micromechanical machines
[1], and in particular heat controlling devices [2–4], has
motivated a lot of interest in the last decade or so.
Recently biologically inspired molecular machines that
can walk [5], rotate [6], and pump [7], stochastic heat
engines [8], a mechanical analog of a laser [9] as well as
nanopower generators [10] have been proposed, among
others. In particular, and within the realm of heat control
in low-dimensional systems, some of the thermal devices
that have been envisioned recently are the heat rectifier
[11–13], a thermal transistor [14], thermal logic gates [15],
and a thermal memory as well [16]. All this recurring
theoretical interest partly lies in the rapid progress in
probing and manipulating thermal properties of nanoscale
systems, which unveils the possibility of designing thermal
devices with optimized performance at the atomic scale.
Among the proposed thermal devices is the heat pump,
which directs the heat flow against a temperature bias.
A quantum heat pump model was proposed in reference
[17], wherein a molecule with two allowed energy levels
interacts with two heat reservoirs kept at different tem-
peratures. An external periodic modulation is applied to
the energy levels and an asymmetry is incorporated by
taking reservoirs with different spectral properties and
different couplings to the molecule, thus leading to the
a in reference [21] we obtain a well defined heat flux value
e-mail: mromerob@ipn.mx
without employing an external non-equilibrium bias, by
time-periodically modulated heat reservoirs with average
zero-temperature difference in contact with a molecu-
lar wire system wherein the heat flow also generates an
electric current [18]. Previous studies employed classi-
cal nonlinear junctions [19] as well as various models of
nonlinear oscillator lattices [20] coupled to the aforemen-
tioned reservoirs. Afterwards, in reference [21] heat flux
inversion was also observed in a Frenkel–Kontorova (FK)
anharmonic lattice under the influence of a finite thermal
gradient and acted upon by an external time-periodical,
single-frequency force.
Motivated by some results in the field of Brownian
motors [22,23] we have studied the model proposed in ref-
erence [21] when acted by an external forcing constituted
by two harmonic components. This technique has been
applied in the context of nanoparticle transport as well as
to design ring gyroscopes and annular Josephson junctions
(see, e.g. Ref. [23] and references therein). It has also been
previously employed to obtain a finite heat flux with a har-
monic mixing drive on the heat reservoirs connected to
various nonlinear oscillator lattice models [20]. However,
the resulting ratchet heat flux obeys no simple adiabatic
estimate so that even the direction of the ratcheting heat
flux cannot be predicted a priori; also the aforementioned
effect was observed for a single temperature value. Apply-
ing this external biharmonic driving to the model studied
Page 2 of 8
at the same temperature value employed when only a
single-frequency forcing is applied, as well as for higher
temperatures. Furthermore, by varying the magnitude of
the frequency of the second harmonic component, taken as
a multiple of the frequency of the first one and thus hav-
ing a single frequency as a parameter, we have been able
to modify the frequency at which the heat flux inversion
effect occurs; this control can also be achieved, although to
a lesser degree, by manipulating the relative amplitudes of
both components. Thus, our modification affords a way to
control the aforementioned effect by means of the parame-
ters of the external forcing, notwithstanding the fact that
this effect is stronger and more robust against ambient
changes than the original one.
This paper is organized as follows: in Section 2, the
model system and methodology are presented. Our results
on the dependence of the current reversal on the extra
force term as well as its dependence on the average tem-
perature wherewith the device operates are reported in
Section 3. The discussion of the results, as well as our
conclusions, are presented in Section 4.
2 System description
The equations of motion (EOMs) for each lattice oscillator
in the considered 1D model can be written as q̇i = pi /mi
and
V
ṗi = k(qi+1 + qi−1 − 2qi ) − sin(2πqi /a) + δi1 F (t)
2π
+(ξL − λL pi ) δ1i + (ξR − λR pi ) δiN , (1)
where N is the system size, k is the harmonic spring
constant, a is the lattice constant, and V is the ampli-
tude of the on-site potential. Here, we consider only the
commensurate case where the on-site potential assumes
the same spatial periodicity as the lattice constant.
{mi , qi , pi }N
i=1 are the mass, displacement, and momen-
tum of the ith oscillator. For convenience of numerical
calculations we use dimensionless parameters by measur-
ing positions in units of [a], spring constants in units
of [k], time in units of [(m/k)1/2 ], momenta in units of
[a(mk)1/2 ], and temperatures in unit of [a2 k/kB ]; see the
Appendix of reference [24] for a detailed procedure on
how to construct such dimensionless units. Fixed bound-
ary conditions are assumed (q0 = qN +1 = 0). Henceforth
we will consider a homogeneous system, i.e. mi = 1 ∀ i.
The Gaussian white noise ξL/R has zero mean and correla-
tion hξL,R (t)ξL,R (t0 )i = 2λL,R kB TL,R mi (δ1i + δN i )δ(t − t0 ),
being λL,R (taken as 1 in all computations hereafter
reported) the coupling strength between the system and
the left and right thermal reservoirs operating at temper-
atures TL and TR , respectively. The external driving force
on the first oscillator will be taken as
F (t) = A1 sin(ω1 t) + A2 sin(ω2 t), (2)
being A1,2 and ω1,2 the amplitude and frequency of
each component. The aforementioned EOMs were inte-
grated with a stochastic velocity-Verlet integrator with
Eur. Phys. J. B (2019) 92: 5
a timestep of ∆t = 0.005 for 4 × 107 time units after a
transient of 6 × 107 time units.
Once the non-equilibrium stationary state is attained,
the local heat flux is computed as Ji = khq̇i (qi − qi−1 )i
with i ∈ [2, N − 1] and the local temperature as Ti =
hp2i /mi i; in both instances h· · · i indicates a time aver-
age that, under the considered temperature bias, can be
safely assumed to be equivalent to an ensemble one. In
the stationary state, the total heat flux J is calculated as
the algebraic average of Ji over the number N of unther-
mostatted oscillators. In the following, the behavior of
this quantity will be studied as a function of both the
temperature difference ∆T = TL − TR and the average
temperature T0 ≡ (TL + TR )/2 of the system.
3 Results
3.1 External forcing with a single harmonic
In Figure 1a, we present the results of the dependence
of the heat flux J as a function of the driving frequency
ω1 ≡ ω with A1 = 1, A2 = 0, TL = 0.4 and various values
of TR for a lattice with N = 64 oscillators. In all instances
TL < TR and thus, in the absence of the external drive, the
heat flows from oscillator i = N to i = 1, which renders
a negative sign for J. The results for TR = 0.6 reproduce
those already reported in reference [21]. In the adiabatic
limit ω → 0 heat transport is mainly dominated by the
temperature gradient, being negligible the effects of the
external force. Furthermore, in this frequency range the
oscillators are confined near their equilibrium positions
within the valley of the nonlinear on-site potential [12].
For an intermediate frequency value the first oscillator
has enough kinetic energy to overcome the potential well,
the on-site potential becomes negligible and the FK√lat-
tice degenerates to a harmonic one with a 0 < ω < 4k
phonon band composed mainly of noninteracting phonons.
Thus, the driving frequency can resonate with the sys-
tem’s characteristic frequencies, i.e. those contained in
the aforementioned phonon band, leading to a heat flux
increase that attains a maximum value Jmax > 0 – that
is, a reversal in the heat flux direction – at a critical value
of ω1 ≡ ωmax = 1.25; therefore, the cooperation between
the intrinsic response time of the system and the external
driving frequency leads to the occurring of thermal reso-
nance. In the limit ω → ∞, the first oscillator experiences
a time averaged zero constant force as if there is no driv-
ing and the contribution due to the temperature gradient
becomes again dominant. Therefore, the J value in the
absence of the external driving is the one attained in either
one of the above limits. Next we notice that, as the value
of TR increases while keeping TL fixed, thermal resonance
is still present, but the current reversal disappears: the
J values in the whole frequency range steadily decrease
as TR increases, which results in a negative Jmax value
in the whole frequency range. In Figure 1b, we plot the
corresponding temperature profiles for each TR value con-
sidered. The observed change in slope corresponds to the
loss of the current reversal effect. Thus in these instances,
the resonance effect renders a moderate increase of the
Eur. Phys. J. B (2019) 92: 5
(a)
0
-0.05
J
-0.1
-0.15
0.01 0.1 1 10
TR = 0.6 ω ∆T
2 TR = 1.0
(b) TR = 1.4
TR = 1.6
TR = 2.0
1.5
Ti
1 -0.1
0.5
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
i To
Fig. 1. (a) Heat flux J vs. frequency ω for an external force
with A1 = 1 and A2 = 0 with V = 5, k = 1, TL = 0.4, and
N = 64. Each curve corresponds to a value of TR and increases
from top to bottom. Maximum heat flux is at ωmax = 1.25 in
all instances. (b) Temperature profiles corresponding to the
ωmax value in panel (a) for different values of TR , from low to
high values increasing from bottom to top.
heat flux at ωmax with respect to its value when there is
no external driving, but with no inversion of the direc-
tion of the heat flux. Our results seem to indicate that
this later effect is extremely weak in all instances and
highly dependent on the temperature differences as readily
shown.
Now, in Figure 2a we present the dependence of
Jmax with respect to the temperature difference ∆T at
fixed TL , A2 = 0, and increasing A1 values. It is readily
observed that, for the lowest A1 values depicted, the
current reversal effect rapidly disappears and the heat
flux takes increasingly negative values as ∆T increases,
thus enhancing the heat flow in the expected direction
when there is no external driving. For larger A1 values the
current reversal effect is maintained and the magnitude
of the heat flux increases, becoming almost independent
of ∆T for large enough values of the amplitude A1 (not
shown). In Figure 2b, we again plot Jmax , but now as a
function of the average temperature T0 for increasing ∆T
values. Under these conditions only for ∆T = 0.2 there is
a well defined current reversal effect that slightly increases
as the T0 value does so. Already for ∆T = 0.6 this effect
is greatly diminished, with a Jmax magnitude almost
independent of the T0 value. As the temperature differ-
ence further increases it completely disappears, i.e. Jmax
remains negative, with its absolute magnitude increasing
in magnitude as T0 takes larger values at fixed tempera-
ture difference. Thus, our remarks are the same as those
at the end of the previous paragraph. Finally, if close to
Page 3 of 8
(a) 0.2
0.1
Jmax
0
A1 = 0.5
-0.1
A1 = 1.0
A1 = 1.5
A1 = 2.0
-0.2
0.5 1 1.5
(b)
0
Jmax
∆T = 0.2
∆T = 0.6
∆T = 1.0
∆T = 1.4
0.5 1 1.5 2
Fig. 2. (a) Maximum heat flux Jmax vs. temperature difference
∆T for various values of the amplitude A1 , with A2 = 0 and a
fixed TL = 0.4 value. (b) Maximum heat flux Jmax vs. average
temperature T0 for various values of the temperature difference
∆T increasing from top to bottom with A1 = 1 and A2 = 0.
Same V , k, and N values as in Figure 1. Continuous lines are
a guide to the eye.
zero values of ∆T are taken, the so obtained results (not
shown) are indistinguishable from those corresponding to
∆T = 0.2, the lowest employed value in both figures.
3.2 Biharmonic external forcing
In order to assess the influence of the second external forc-
ing term in both the thermal resonance and change in
direction of the heat flux, we begin to perform simulations
with various values of the parameters A1 , A2 , ω1 ≡ ω,
and taking the quotient ω2 /ω as an irrational number.
This particular choice stems from the desire to test the
thermal resonance phenomenon in a setup in which the
second frequency is incommensurable with the first one,
thus avoiding any trivial summation of both contributions
that could occur at integer multiples of a given period.
As can be readily observed in Figure 3 in both depicted
instances an increase in A1 with A2 = 0 renders a signifi-
cant increment of Jmax . When A1 = A2 = 1 an increment
of lower magnitude than the former is obtained, but with
an important new feature: there is a shift in ωmax to
lower frequencies,
√ which corresponds to ωmax = 0.9 for
ω2 /ω = 2, Figure 3a, and to ωmax = 0.6 for ω2 /ω = e,
Figure 3b, being e the Euler constant. This effect can
be understood if we recall that, as more external driv-
ing frequencies are involved, the power supply (∼ ω 2 )
into the lattice is increased and thus more low frequency
phonons associated with heat conduction are involved
in the transport process. Therefore, thermal resonance
Page 4 of 8
0.25
(a) A11 = A2 = 0
0.2 A11 = 1.0 , A2 = 0
A11 = 2.0 , A2 = 0
0.15
J
A1 = A2 = 1.0
0.1 A1 = 2.0 , A2 = 1.0
A1 = 1.0 , A2 = 2.0
0.05
0
0.25
(b) 0.2
0.15
J
0.1
0.05
0
0.01 0.1 1 10
ω
Fig. 3. Heat flux J vs. driving frequency ω for various
√ values
of the amplitudes A1 and A2 , ω1 ≡ ω, (a) ω2 /ω = 2, and
(b) ω2 /ω = e. Same V , k, and N values as in Figure 1, with
TL = 0.4 and TR = 0.6. Filled circles correspond to A1 = 1
and A2 = 0, filled squares to A1 = 2 and A2 = 0, void circles
to A1 = A2 = 1, void squares to A2 = 2 and A1 = 1, and
diamonds to A1 = 1 and A2 = 2. Continuous lines are a guide
to the eye and dot-dashed line correspond to the case with no
external forcing, i.e. A1 = A2 = 0.
occurs at the lower frequencies associated with
√ the afore-
mentioned phonons. Now, for the ω2 /ω = 2 case we
notice that, for A1 = 2 and A2 = 1 the increment of the
Jmax value is substantial, from Jmax = 0.06 to 0.25; if
we now take A1 = 1 and A2 = 2 the peak in the plot J
versus ω is somewhat sharper, but with no other new fea-
ture. However, the behavior is different for the ω2 /ω = e
instance: with A1 = 2 and A2 = 1 the behavior of J as a
function of ω resembles quite close that of the case A1 = 2
and A2 = 0, i.e. the effect of the second harmonic is neg-
ligible, with no frequency shift altogether. Nevertheless, if
we now take A1 = 1 and A2 = 2 we obtain not only an
increment in the Jmax value with a more defined peak,
but also a larger frequency shift, and thus a lower value
of ωmax = 0.5, than that obtained with A1 = A2 = 1. We
thus see that, with the inclusion of a second forcing term
with larger amplitude than the first, a dramatic incre-
ment of the magnitude of the current reversal effect is
obtained; the observed frequency shift even hints to the
possibility of controlling the response of the system by a
manipulation of the parameters defining the external forc-
ing, something that seems not to be feasible with a single
frequency forcing. Therefore, in the following we will take
mainly the values A1 = 1 and A2 = 2 for the amplitudes
of the components of the external forcing.
In Figure 4a, we present our results when the external
driving has the parameters ω1 ≡ ω, ω2 = 2ω, A1 = 1, and
A2 = 2 for J versus ω. It is clear that, when the second
harmonic is present in the external drive, the Jmax values
corresponding to each curve have both a larger magnitude
than the corresponding single-harmonic case and a lower
decrease rate when TR increases. But the most remarkable
Eur. Phys. J. B (2019) 92: 5
(a)
0.2
TR = 0.6
TR = 1.0
TR = 1.4
0.1 TR = 1.6
TR = 2.0
J
0
-0.1
0.01 0.1 1 10
ω
(b)
2.5
2
Ti
1.5
1
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
i
Fig. 4. (a) Heat flux J vs. driving frequency for an external
force with parameters A1 = 1, A2 = 2, ω1 = ω, and ω2 = 2ω
for various TR values. Same N and TL values as in Figure 1.
Maximum heat flux is at ωmax = 0.7. (b) Temperature profiles
corresponding to the ωmax value in panel (a) for different values
of TR , from low to high values increasing from bottom to top.
feature is that both the thermal resonance and current
reversal effects are present in the whole temperature range
studied, as can be seen from the temperature profiles pre-
sented in Figure 4b, all of them with a negative slope
and thus consistent with a positive heat flux. The cur-
rent reversal effect decreases as TR increases, just as in
the single-frequency case, but now each Jmax value corre-
sponds to an inversion in the heat current direction, from
negative to positive. The thermal resonance suffers a dra-
matic increase since the heat flux changes from −0.0076, in
both the adiabatic and fast-driving limits, to Jmax = 0.24
for TR = 0.6 and from −0.135 to Jmax = 0.12 for TR = 2,
both at a resonance frequency of ωmax = 0.7.
Next in Figure 5 we present the same results that in
Figure 2, but now for a biharmonic forcing. Although Jmax
decreases as ∆T increases, as can be observed in Figure 5a,
the current reversal effect still exists for moderate ampli-
tude values, which may be more readily implemented than
the large magnitudes needed for the singe-harmonic case
to maintain this effect. As for the dependence of Jmax
on T0 depicted in Figure 5b the results are definitely
better than the corresponding ones in Figure 2b, since,
although as ∆T increases the corresponding data in the
curve decrease in value compared with the ones in the pre-
vious one, the maximum heat flux increases as T0 does so
in all instances and the obtained values are larger than
those corresponding to the single-harmonic case. There-
fore, so far we can conclude that the biharmonic forcing
Eur. Phys. J. B (2019) 92: 5
(a) 0.3
0.2
0.1
Jmax
0 5
A2 = 0
A2 = 0.5
-0.1 A2 = 1.0
A2 = 1.5
-0.2 A2 = 2.0
0.5 1 1.5
∆T
(b)
0.4 ∆T = 0.2
∆T = 0.6
∆T = 1.0
∆T = 1.4
0.3
Jmax
0.2
0.1
0.5 1 1.5 2 the corresponding ones obtained with the previous choice
T A1 = 1 and A2 = 2. As for the value of the critical fre-
Fig. 5. (a) Same as Figure 2a, but with the values A1 , A2 ,
ω1 , and ω2 employed in Figure 4. (b) Same information as in
Figure 2b and with the same A1 , A2 , ω1 , and ω2 values as in
Figure 4a. Continuous lines are a guide to the eye.
significantly enhances the performance of the device under
the considered temperature conditions compared to the
single-harmonic forcing previously considered.
Since the previously reported results for the biharmonic
forcing were obtained for A1 = 1 and A2 = 2, and in view
of Figure 5a which shows an increase of the Jmax value
as the amplitude of the second harmonic grows at either
fixed ∆T or T0 , it seems compelling to explore the behav-
ior of the aforementioned quantity for larger A2 values.
In Figure 6, we present the dependence of Jmax with A2
for two values of the temperature difference. A power-like
dependence Jmax ∼ Aα 2 is obtained in both instances, with
α = 2.4 for T0 = 0.5 and α = 2.3 for T0 = 1. This result
shows that almost arbitrary increments in the maximum
heat flux can be obtained for an increase in amplitude,
although maybe this would not be the best way to do so
because an increase in amplitude could compromise the
structural stability of the lattice.
Now we explore the temperature dependence of the
behavior reported in Figure 3 for A1 = 2 and A2 = 1, with
ω1 = ω and ω2 = 2ω; the result is presented in Figure 7.
It can be noticed that, for the chosen ω2 /ω value, there
is a competition between the two forcing terms that is
reflected in a maximum value of the heat flux not as well
defined as in Figure 4a; the observed shoulder after the
Jmax value reflects the influence of the second driving
term. But except for this feature the behavior is identical
to that depicted in Figure 4a with A1 = 1 and A2 = 2, i.e.,
a decreasing value of Jmax as TR increases, with the cur-
rent reversal still present. Furthermore, the temperature
profiles depicted in Figure 7b present larger fluctuations
Page 5 of 8
T0 = 0.5
10
T0 = 1
Jmax
0
0 2 4 6 8 10
A2
Fig. 6. Maximum heat flux Jmax vs. amplitude A2 with A1 ,
∆T = 0.2 and two different T0 values. Same V , k, ω1 , ω2 , and
N values as in Figure 4. Dashed and dotted lines correspond
to the power-law fit to the data. See text for details.
than those in Figure 4b; nevertheless, the magnitude of
Jmax for each curve in Figure 4a is almost identical to
quency, ωmax = 0.9, we notice that it is identical to the
case depicted in Figure 3a, thus corroborating that only
for small values of the quotient ω2 /ω there is any shift
of ωmax to lower frequencies at all; for larger values of
the aforementioned quotient ωmax is identical to the value
obtained when A2 = 0. Therefore, we have determined
that the manipulation of the relative amplitudes of both
forcing terms is of lesser importance than the value of the
quotient of both frequencies in obtaining a shift of the
critical frequency in which the change of direction of the
heat flux occurs and that this phenomenology seems to be
largely temperature independent.
Besides improving the current reversal effect for dif-
ferent temperature conditions, the biharmonic forcing
reduces the magnitude of the critical frequency wherewith
the resonance effect appears; the reduction was reported
in Figure 3 for very specific values of the quotient ω2 /ω.
Therefore, it seems compelling to explore the effect of
the second forcing frequency on thermal resonance for
a wider value range of the aforementioned quotient. In
Figure 8a, we present our results for a biharmonic forc-
ing wherein the quotient ω2 /ω is varied with A1 = 1 and
A2 = 2 for values of ω2 /ω > 1. This shift of Jmax towards
lower frequencies can be explained by recalling that, as
higher harmonics are employed in the external driving
force, more energy is provided to the FK lattice and its
dynamical behavior becomes closer to √ that of a harmonic
one with a phonon band of 0 < ω < 4k, as previously
explained. Thus, as the energy in the system increases
more low-frequency phonons, which are mostly responsi-
ble of the heat transport process, are involved and the
resonance frequency ωmax is shifted towards lower val-
ues, although the associated Jmax diminishes in magnitude
because, in this frequency range, the system approaches
the adiabatic limit. At ω2 /ω = 1 the resonant heat flux
is maximum, with a value of Jmax = 0.267, as can be
observed in Figure 8b where the dependence of Jmax with
Page 6 of 8 Eur. Phys. J. B (2019) 92: 5

(a) TR = 0.6 0.25

TR = 1.0
k=1 (a)
0.2 0.2 k=2
TR = 1.4 k=3
0.15 k=4
TR = 1.6 k=5

J
0.1 TR = 2.0
0.1
J

0.05
0
0
-0.1 0.01 0.1 1 10
ω
2
0.01 0.1 1 10 0.25
ω (b)
0.2 1.5
(b)

ωmax
Jmax
2.5 0.15
0.1 1
2 (c)
0.05
Ti

1.5
1
0 10 20 30
i whereas in (b) and (c) it represents the best fit to the data.
Fig. 7. (a) Heat flux J vs. driving frequency for an external
force with parameters A1 = 2, A2 = 1, ω1 = ω, and ω2 = 2ω
for various TR values. Same N and TL values as in Figure 1.
Maximum heat flux is at ωmax = 0.9. (b) Temperature profiles
corresponding to the ωmax value in panel (a) for different values
of TR , from low to high values increasing from bottom to top.
0.5
1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
k k
Fig. 9. (a) Heat flux J vs. driving frequency for an external
force with parameters TL = 0.4, TR = 0.6, A1 = 1, A2 = 2,
ω1 = ω, and ω2 = 2ω for various k values. (b) Jmax and
40 50 60
(c) ωmax vs. k. Continuous lines in (a) are a guide to the eye,
See text for details.
In Figure 9, we explore the influence of the harmonic
coupling constant on thermal resonance. As the former
increases, the maximum heat flux shifts to higher frequen-
cies, just as in the single-forced case already reported [21].
For the maximum heat flux, we have a dependence on the
(b) harmonic constant of the form Jmax = 1/(αk + β) with
0.25
α = 0.4 and β = 0.3 that can be readily appreciated in
Figure 9b. From Figure 9c we obtain a linear dependence
Jmax

0.25
1/2
ω2 = 2 ω 1 (a) 0.2
ω2 = 2ω1
ω2 = eω1 of the form ωmax ∼ Ak with A = 0.27; this result is very
0.2 ω2 = 3ω1
ω2 = πω1 0.15 different to the single force instance, since in the latter one
ω2 = 4ω1

0.15 ω2 = 5ω1
0.1
ωmax has a power-law dependence on the harmonic con-
ω2 = 6ω1
stant. This result exemplifies the complicated interplay
J

6 (c)
0.1
5 between the contribution to the thermal resonance effect
0.05 4 of structural properties, such as k in this case, and the
ωmax

3 form of the external forcing, which makes highly nontriv-

0
0.01 0.1 1 10
ω 0
Fig. 8. (a) Heat flux J vs. driving frequency for an external
force with parameters TL = 0.4, TR = 0.6, A1 = 1, A2 = 2,
ω1 = ω, and various values of the quotient ω2 /ω > 1. (c) Jmax
and (d) ωmax vs. ω2 /ω. Continuous lines are a guide to the eye
in (a) and (b), whereas in (c) they represent the best fit to the
data.
ω2 /ω is presented. Next, in Figure 8c the decrease of the
resonant frequency ωmax with respect to the frequency
quotient is observed to follow a decrement of the form
ωmax = 1/(αx + β), with α = 0.8 and β = −0.008. This
power-like behavior indicates that, as ω2 /ω increases, the
critical frequency approaches an asymptotic value.
2 ial to predict the outcome for a particular instance. At this
1 point it is important to notice that, for the single forced
instance, the shift of ωmax to higher frequencies is accom-
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
ω2 / ω1
panied by a weakening in the thermal transport, i.e. the
value of Jmax steadily diminishes, which will eventually
lead to the disappearance of thermal resonance altogether
for large enough k values. The situation is completely dif-
ferent for the biharmonic forcing case, where even the
curve which has the lowest maximum frequency, k = 5,
has a higher Jmax value compared to that obtained in the
original, single-forced case.
We also explored the effect of the magnitude of the non-
linear on-site potential on the thermal resonance present
in this system. In Figure 10a, we readily notice that
the resonance peak decreases as the height of the on-site
potential increases in a monotonic way, as can be observed
in Figure 10b. This phenomenology arises because, as V
increases, the oscillators are more confined into the valleys
of the on-site potential, hindering the heat transport and
Eur. Phys. J. B (2019) 92: 5
0.4
V=3
0.3 V=4
V=5
V=6
0.2 V=7
J
0.1
0
0.01 0.1 1 10
ω 0.01
0.4
(b) 0.8
0.3
ωmax
Jmax
0.7
0.2
0.6
0.1
3 4 5 6 7 3 4 5
V V
Fig. 10. (a) Heat flux J vs. driving frequency for an external
force with parameters TL = 0.4, TR = 0.6, A1 = 1, A2 = 2,
ω1 = ω, and ω2 = 2ω for various V values. (b) Jmax and
(c) ωmax vs. V . Continuous lines are a guide to the eye in
all instances.
thus decreasing the Jmax value. Therefore, the response
time of the system is increased, which entails a shift of
the resonant frequency ωmax to a lower value within the
allowed phonon band as V increases in a non-monotonic
way, as can be appreciated in Figure 10c. The resonance
regime is thus driven towards longer timescales, although
very large amplitudes would be needed to obtain any fur-
ther decrements in the ωmax value. Also the frequency
shift occurs in a narrower frequency range compared to
the corresponding single-forced case.
The size effects on thermal resonance is explored for
various system sizes and is reported in Figure 11. The
phenomenology is the same as in the single-frequency case:
the total heat flux increases up to a saturation value, the
effect does not disappear in the large system-size limit,
as can be readily appreciated in Figure 11a, and the res-
onance frequency is independent of the system size. It is
worth noticing that the maximum heat flux is an order of
magnitude larger than the single-frequency case. The only
significant differences are that the convergence to the sat-
uration value is somewhat slower in the biharmonic case,
as can be appreciated in the temperature profiles for the
employed system sizes depicted in Figure 11b and in the
behavior of the thermal conductivity κ(N ) = −JN/∆T
as a function of the system size presented in Figure 11c
compared to the single-frequency case [21].
4 Concluding remarks
In this work, we have modified the previously proposed
setup of a FK anharmonic lattice subjected to a temper-
ature gradient by means of a biharmonic external forcing
that was previously proposed in the context of Brownian
Page 7 of 8
(a) 50
(a) N = 64
40 N = 512
N = 1024
30
N = 2048
JN
20
10
0
0.1 1 10
3
ω
(b) (c)
(c) 2.5
3.5
2
κ
Ti
3.4
1.5
1 3.3
0.5
6 7 0 0.5 1 100 1000
i/N N
Fig. 11. (a) Total heat flux JN vs. driving frequency for an
external force with parameters TL = 0.4, TR = 0.6, V = 5,
A1 = 1, A2 = 2, ω1 = ω, and ω2 = 2ω for various system
sizes N . (b) Temperature profiles for all reported system sizes.
(c) Thermal conductivity vs. system size N . Continuous lines
are a guide to the eye in all instances.
motors. First we determined that the original single-
frequency external forcing rendered very weak resonance
and heat flux inversion effects that rapidly disappear as
either the mean temperature or the one of the hot reservoir
is increased. When the second harmonic external forcing
is included a significant increase in the magnitude of both
aforementioned effects is obtained, which are also present
in a larger temperature range than the single-frequency
case. We also determined that, if the second harmonic
forcing is a higher harmonic than the first one, the fre-
quency at which thermal resonance appears shifts to lower
frequencies, with a very modest decrease in its magnitude
as higher second frequencies are considered. The maxi-
mum heat flux is obtained when the frequencies of both
components are identical and equal to the resonance fre-
quency of the single-frequency forcing. Thus, by varying
parameters of the external forcing we can achieve an effec-
tive control of the frequency range in which we desire the
thermal resonance to appear within the allowed phonon
band, although with a somewhat diminished magnitude.
Nevertheless, we believe that this is an adequate trade-off,
since varying the strength of the harmonic coupling can
shift the value of the critical frequency, but just to higher
values and with an important decrease of the magnitude
of the heat flux, whereas a change in the magnitude of the
on-site potential decreases the aforementioned magnitude
with only a very weak shift of the critical frequency.
Since our proposed modification entails an external
mechanism independent of the structural details of the
employed model, the herein employed driving force could
be readily implemented experimentally by many different
means. This is specially important if a future technolog-
ical application could be envisioned, since the external
driving can be tailored according to the proposed use
Page 8 of 8 Eur. Phys. J. B (2019) 92: 5

of the thermal resonance. Further research is being per- B.J. Lopez, P.M.G. Curmi, N.R. Forde, D.N. Woolfson,
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