{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,18]],"date-time":"2026-03-18T01:24:23Z","timestamp":1773797063468,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":62,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"10","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,25]],"date-time":"2025-09-25T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1758758400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000001","name":"U.S. National Science Foundation","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["QIS-2412920"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["QIS-2412920"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000001","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.mdpi.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Entropy"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Quantum interference can strongly enhance thermoelectric response, with higher-order \u201csupernodes\u201d predicted to yield scalable gains in thermopower and efficiency. A central question, however, is whether such features are intrinsically more fragile to dephasing. Using B\u00fcttiker voltage\u2013temperature probes, we establish an order-selection rule: the effective near-node order is set by the lowest among coherent and probe-assisted channels. Supernodes are therefore fragile in an absolute sense because their transmission is parametrically suppressed with order. However, once an incoherent floor dominates, the fractional suppression of thermopower, efficiency, and figure of merit becomes universal and order-independent. Illustrating these principles with benzene- and biphenyl-based junction calculations, we show that the geometry of environmental coupling\u2014through a single orbital or across many\u2014dictates whether coherence is lost by order reduction or by floor building. These results yield general scaling rules for the thermoelectric response of interference nodes under dephasing.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/e27101000","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,26]],"date-time":"2025-09-26T06:02:52Z","timestamp":1758866572000},"page":"1000","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Quantum Interference Supernodes, Thermoelectric Enhancement, and the Role of Dephasing"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"27","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6224-5896","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Justin P.","family":"Bergfield","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physics, Illinois State University, Normal, IL 61761, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,25]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"035001","DOI":"10.1103\/RevModPhys.92.035001","article-title":"Advances and challenges in single-molecule electron transport","volume":"92","author":"Evers","year":"2020","journal-title":"Rev. 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