Normal heat conduction in one dimensional momentum conserving lattices with asymmetric interactions

The heat conduction behavior of one dimensional momentum conserving lattice systems with asymmetric interparticle interactions is numerically investigated. It is found that with certain degree of interaction asymmetry, the heat conductivity measured in nonequilibrium stationary states converges in the thermodynamical limit, in clear contrast to the well accepted viewpoint that Fourier’s law is generally violated in low dimensional momentum conserving systems. It suggests in nonequilibrium stationary states the mass gradient resulted from the asymmetric interactions may provide an additional phonon scattering mechanism other than that due to the nonlinear interactions.