Kinetic thermal-conductivity approximation (source code)

= Kinetic thermal-conductivity approximation
{title2=$\kappa\simeq C\langle v\rangle\ell/3$}

In an isotropic near-equilibrium quasiparticle transport picture, an angular average of squared <velocity> components supplies the factor1/3. Mode-resolved heat capacities times $v_g^2\tau$ then sum to thermal conductivity. Replacing them by $C\langle v\rangle\ell/3$ is a characteristic-scale approximation, not an exact product of separately chosen averages. A solid can use this kinetic structure because mobile <phonon> and <electron> excitations transport <energy> even when the constituent atoms remain localized.