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An Umklapp process conserves reduced crystal momentum modulo a nonzero reciprocal lattice vector. It can occur in electron-phonon scattering as well as phonon-phonon scattering; the lattice takes up the reciprocal-lattice momentum.

In a three-phonon Umklapp scattering process, the first-zone wavevectors obey the displayed equation for a nonzero reciprocal lattice vector $\mathbf{G}$, together with conservation of energy. The crystal momentum transferred to the lattice allows these processes to relax a phonon heat current. They are suppressed at sufficiently low temperature and often determine the approximate $1/T$ high-temperature thermal conductivity of a crystalline electrical insulator.

For constant wall heat-flux density $F>0$, effective thermal conductivity $k_e$, buoyancy mobility $B={\rho }_{0}g\alpha K/\mu$ and thermal transport coefficient $\kappa =k_e/({\rho }_0{c}_f)$, a slender Darcy flow boundary layer has width $\delta =(\kappa k_{e}z/(BF){)}^{1/3}$. Writing $\eta =y/\delta$, $\psi =\kappa zf(\eta )/\delta$ and $T-T_a=(F\delta /k_e)f^{\prime }(\eta )$ gives the displayed equation with $f(0)=0$, $f^{\prime \prime }(0)=-1$ and $f^{\prime }(\infty )=0$. The exact integral is ${\int }_0^{\infty }(f^{\prime }{)}^{2}d\eta =1$. Consequently its kinematic Darcy momentum flux is $\int w^{2}dy=B\kappa Fz/k_e$ and its buoyancy flux is $g\alpha \kappa Fz/k_e$. These are per span on one heated face.

Let a bounded connected body consist of two regions with positive constant thermal conductivities $k_1,k_2$. A temperature is harmonic in each region, continuous across their interface, has continuous normal heat flux there, and has prescribed outer Dirichlet boundary conditions. There is at most one sufficiently regular solution.

For the difference $w$ of two solutions, apply Green's first identity in each region and multiply by its thermal conductivity. The interface outward normals are opposite, so continuity of $w$ and $k{\partial }_{n}w$ cancels their boundary terms. The outer term vanishes because $w=0$. Hence the displayed sum of nonnegative Dirichlet energies is zero. The gradient vanishes in both regions; continuity and the outer data then force $w=0$. The proof also applies to finitely many connected subregions, provided the union is connected and the same transmission conditions hold.

Volumetric heat capacity is heat capacity per unit volume, with units $\mathrm{J}{\mathrm{m}}^{-3}{\mathrm{K}}^{-1}$. For homogeneous material of mass density $\rho =m/V$, it equals $\rho c$, using specific heat capacity $c$ for the same constraint. It measures the heat required per small temperature increase for a chosen occupied volume. In a material model using specific heat capacity at constant pressure, thermal diffusivity is $\alpha =k/(\rho c_p)$, where $k$ is thermal conductivity.

The Wiedemann-Franz law relates the electronic thermal conductivity of a normal degenerate metal to its electrical conductivity:An isotropic kinetic theory estimate gives $K_e=c_e{v}_F^2{\tau }_Q/3$. With electronic heat capacity density $c_e={\pi }^{2}n{k}_B^{2}T/(2E_F)$, $v_F^2=2E_F/m^{\ast }$ and $\sigma =n{e}^2{\tau }_{\sigma }/m^{\ast }$, the ratio is $L_0{\tau }_Q/{\tau }_{\sigma }$. Approximately elastic scattering with a smooth energy dependence gives equal heat and charge relaxation times. Inelastic electron-phonon scattering can make them different; the law also concerns the electronic contribution, not additional lattice heat conduction.^[ref]