Fluctuation-electrodynamic theory and dynamics of heat transfer in systems of multiple dipoles

A general fluctuation-electrodynamic theory is developed to investigate radiative heat exchanges between objects that are assumed to be small compared with their thermal wavelength (dipolar approximation) in N-body systems immersed in a thermal bath. This theoretical framework is applied to study the dynamic of heating or cooling of three-body systems. We show that many-body interactions allow us to tailor the temperature field distribution and to drastically change the time scale of thermal relaxation processes.