Theory–experiment confirmation of electron–phonon hydrodynamics

Establish detailed agreement between electron–phonon hydrodynamics theory and experiments in candidate materials including Sb, WTe2, WP2, ZrTe5, PtSn4, and NbGe2, by quantitatively validating predicted transport signatures such as phonon drag and Wiedemann–Franz violations.

Background

When electrons and phonons exchange momentum rapidly and relax it slowly, the combined system can be hydrodynamic with distinctive thermoelectric and thermal transport. Several materials have been proposed as realizations, but systematic, quantitative validation against theory is still missing.

References

Experimentally, electron-phonon hydrodynamics has been proposed for Sb , WTe$_2$ , WP$_2$ , ZrTe$_5$ , PtSn$_4$ , and NbGe$_2$ , though detailed confirmations between theory and experiment have yet to be done.

— Hydrodynamics of the electronic Fermi liquid: a pedagogical overview (2504.01249 - Hui et al., 1 Apr 2025) in Section “Electron-Phonon Hydrodynamics” (subsection of Beyond Isotropic Fermi Liquid Hydrodynamics)