Heat radiation from long cylindrical objects

The heat radiated by objects small or comparable to the thermal wavelength can be very different from the classical blackbody radiation as described by the laws of Planck and Stefan-Boltzmann. We derive methods based on scattering of electromagnetic waves to explore the dependence on size, shape, as well as material properties. In particular, we discuss the radiation from a long cylinder at uniform temperature, describing in detail the degree of polarization of the emitted radiation by nanowires and carbon nanotubes.