Role of pinning potentials in heat transport through disordered harmonic chains.

The role of quadratic on-site pinning potentials on determining the size (N) dependence of the disorder averaged steady state heat current J in an isotopically disordered harmonic chain connected to stochastic heat baths is investigated. For two models of heat baths, namely white noise baths and Rubin's model of baths, we find that the N dependence of J is the same and depends on the number of pinning centers present in the chain. In the absence of pinning, Fr approximately 1/N1/2 while in the presence of one or two pins Fi approximately 1/N3/2. For a finite (n) number of pinning centers with 2n approximately 1/N(n-1/2). We discuss the relevance of our results in the context of recent experiments.