Abstract
A general fluctuation-electrodynamic theory is developed to investigate radiative heat exchanges between objects that are assumed to be small compared with their thermal wavelength (dipolar approximation) in -body systems immersed in a thermal bath. This theoretical framework is applied to study the dynamic of heating or cooling of three-body systems. We show that many-body interactions allow us to tailor the temperature field distribution and to drastically change the time scale of thermal relaxation processes.
- Received 20 June 2013
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.88.104307
©2013 American Physical Society