Nature 418, 614–617 (2002)

In this Letter, we described the anomalous behaviour of the thermal conductivity k in quasi-one-dimensional Bechgaard salts. As we have since observed a conventional temperature dependence of k in another quasi-one-dimensional organic conductor, TTF-TCNQ, we remeasured the value of k in our Bechgaard salts and identified a heat leakage in the original experimental set-up, which becomes relevant for samples with very small values of k at low temperatures. In an improved set-up, the low-temperature maxima of k (as reported in Figs 2 and 3) are not reproduced, indicating that our estimate of the phonon contribution to the thermal conductivity of the Bechgaard salts is no longer valid. Because a reliable decomposition of k into a magnetic and a phononic contribution was the basis of our interpretation, we have to withdraw the conclusion that our data provided evidence for spin–charge separation.