The Wiedemann-Franz law in the putative one-dimensional metallic phase of PrBa2Cu4O8

The nature of the electronic state of a metal depends strongly on its dimensionality. In a system of isolated conducting chains, the Fermi-liquid (quasiparticle) description appropriate for higher dimensions is replaced by the so-called Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid picture characterized by collective excitations of spin and charge. Temperature is often regarded as a viable tuning parameter between states of different dimensionality, but what happens once thermal broadening becomes comparable to the interchain hopping energy remains an unresolved issue, one that is central to many organic and inorganic conductors. Here we use the ratio of the thermal to electrical conductivities to probe the nature of the electronic state in PrBa2Cu4O8 as a function of temperature. We find that despite the interchain transport becoming non-metallic, the charge carriers within the CuO chains appear to retain their quasiparticle nature. This implies that temperature alone cannot induce a crossover from Fermi-liquid to Tomonaga-Luttinger-liquid behaviour in quasi-one-dimensional metals.