Superballistic Transport of Thermal Photons in Confined Many-Body Systems
Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 116303 – Published 10 September, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/yxqz-j6dv
Abstract
Ballistic transport is traditionally regarded as a limiting regime for scattering-free energy transfer. Here, we predict a superballistic radiative heat transport regime that surpasses this limit in dilute chains of plasmonic nanoparticles confined within cavities. This anomalous regime exhibits superlinear scaling of the effective thermal conductivity () and originates from the amplification of long-range interactions mediated by cavity-guided modes. Our results establish a framework for ultrafast photonic heat transport and open pathways for thermal management, information processing, and energy transfer in quantum and nanoscale systems.