Transport Properties of the "Excitonic Insulator": Thermal Conductivity

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Abstract
The thermal conductivity of the excitonic insulator is calculated in the semimetallic limit. At low temperatures the main scattering mechanism is assumed to be due to impurities. Despite a recent claim of "super-thermal conductivity" of the system, which can be described as a condensate of electron-hole pairs, we find that the thermal conductivity is well behaved. It is shown that the thermal conductivity in the semimetallic limit of the underlying two-band model is almost identical to the thermal conductivity of a superconductor containing magnetic impurities as scatterers. The analogy stems from the fact that the thermodynamic properties in the two cases are similar, as was discussed recently.