14,163 research outputs found
Correcting 100 years of misunderstanding: electric fields in superconductors, hole superconductivity, and the Meissner effect
From the outset of superconductivity research it was assumed that no
electrostatic fields could exist inside superconductors, and this assumption
was incorporated into conventional London electrodynamics. Yet the London
brothers themselves initially (in 1935) had proposed an electrodynamic theory
of superconductors that allowed for static electric fields in their interior,
which they unfortunately discarded a year later. I argue that the Meissner
effect in superconductors necessitates the existence of an electrostatic field
in their interior, originating in the expulsion of negative charge from the
interior to the surface when a metal becomes superconducting. The theory of
hole superconductivity predicts this physics, and associated with it a
macroscopic spin current in the ground state of superconductors ("Spin Meissner
effect"), qualitatively different from what is predicted by conventional
BCS-London theory. A new London-like electrodynamic description of
superconductors is proposed to describe this physics. Within this theory
superconductivity is driven by lowering of quantum kinetic energy, the fact
that the Coulomb repulsion strongly depends on the character of the charge
carriers, namely whether electron- or hole-like, and the spin-orbit
interaction. The electron-phonon interaction does not play a significant role,
yet the existence of an isotope effect in many superconductors is easily
understood. In the strong coupling regime the theory appears to favor local
charge inhomogeneity. The theory is proposed to apply to all superconducting
materials, from the elements to the high cuprates and pnictides, is
highly falsifiable, and explains a wide variety of experimental observations.Comment: Proceedings of the conference "Quantum phenomena in complex matter
2011 - Stripes 2011", Rome, 10 July -16 July 2011, to be published in J.
Supercond. Nov. Mag
Superconductivity from Undressing. II. Single Particle Green's Function and Photoemission in Cuprates
Experimental evidence indicates that the superconducting transition in high
cuprates is an 'undressing' transition. Microscopic mechanisms giving
rise to this physics were discussed in the first paper of this series. Here we
discuss the calculation of the single particle Green's function and spectral
function for Hamiltonians describing undressing transitions in the normal and
superconducting states. A single parameter, , describes the strength
of the undressing process and drives the transition to superconductivity. In
the normal state, the spectral function evolves from predominantly incoherent
to partly coherent as the hole concentration increases. In the superconducting
state, the 'normal' Green's function acquires a contribution from the anomalous
Green's function when is non-zero; the resulting contribution to
the spectral function is for hole extraction and for hole
injection. It is proposed that these results explain the observation of sharp
quasiparticle states in the superconducting state of cuprates along the
direction and their absence along the direction.Comment: figures have been condensed in fewer pages for easier readin
Superconductivity from Undressing
Photoemission experiments in high cuprates indicate that quasiparticles
are heavily 'dressed' in the normal state, particularly in the low doping
regime. Furthermore these experiments show that a gradual undressing occurs
both in the normal state as the system is doped and the carrier concentration
increases, as well as at fixed carrier concentration as the temperature is
lowered and the system becomes superconducting. A similar picture can be
inferred from optical experiments. It is argued that these experiments can be
simply understood with the single assumption that the quasiparticle dressing is
a function of the local carrier concentration. Microscopic Hamiltonians
describing this physics are discussed. The undressing process manifests itself
in both the one-particle and two-particle Green's functions, hence leads to
observable consequences in photoemission and optical experiments respectively.
An essential consequence of this phenomenology is that the microscopic
Hamiltonians describing it break electron-hole symmetry: these Hamiltonians
predict that superconductivity will only occur for carriers with hole-like
character, as proposed in the theory of hole superconductivity
Quantum Monte Carlo and exact diagonalization study of a dynamic Hubbard model
A one-dimensional model of electrons locally coupled to spin-1/2 degrees of
freedom is studied by numerical techniques. The model is one in the class of
that describe the relaxation of an atomic orbital
upon double electron occupancy due to electron-electron interactions. We study
the parameter regime where pairing occurs in this model by exact
diagonalization of small clusters. World line quantum Monte Carlo simulations
support the results of exact diagonalization for larger systems and show that
kinetic energy is lowered when pairing occurs. The qualitative physics of this
model and others in its class, obtained through approximate analytic
calculations, is that superconductivity occurs through hole undressing even in
parameter regimes where the effective on-site interaction is strongly
repulsive. Our numerical results confirm the expected qualitative behavior, and
show that pairing will occur in a substantially larger parameter regime than
predicted by the approximate low energy effective Hamiltonian.Comment: Some changes made in response to referees comments. To be published
in Phys.Rev.
Meissner effect, Spin Meissner effect and charge expulsion in superconductors
The Meissner effect and the Spin Meissner effect are the spontaneous
generation of charge and spin current respectively near the surface of a metal
making a transition to the superconducting state. The Meissner effect is well
known but, I argue, not explained by the conventional theory, the Spin Meissner
effect has yet to be detected. I propose that both effects take place in all
superconductors, the first one in the presence of an applied magnetostatic
field, the second one even in the absence of applied external fields. Both
effects can be understood under the assumption that electrons expand their
orbits and thereby lower their quantum kinetic energy in the transition to
superconductivity. Associated with this process, the metal expels negative
charge from the interior to the surface and an electric field is generated in
the interior. The resulting charge current can be understood as arising from
the magnetic Lorentz force on radially outgoing electrons, and the resulting
spin current can be understood as arising from a spin Hall effect originating
in the Rashba-like coupling of the electron magnetic moment to the internal
electric field. The associated electrodynamics is qualitatively different from
London electrodynamics, yet can be described by a small modification of the
conventional London equations. The stability of the superconducting state and
its macroscopic phase coherence hinge on the fact that the orbital angular
momentum of the carriers of the spin current is found to be exactly ,
indicating a topological origin. The simplicity and universality of our theory
argue for its validity, and the occurrence of superconductivity in many classes
of materials can be understood within our theory.Comment: Submitted to SLAFES XX Proceeding
Quasiparticle undressing in a dynamic Hubbard model: exact diagonalization study
Dynamic Hubbard models have been proposed as extensions of the conventional
Hubbard model to describe the orbital relaxation that occurs upon double
occupancy of an atomic orbital. These models give rise to pairing of holes and
superconductivity in certain parameter ranges. Here we explore the changes in
carrier effective mass and quasiparticle weight and in one- and two-particle
spectral functions that occur in a dynamic Hubbard model upon pairing, by exact
diagonalization of small systems. It is found that pairing is associated with
lowering of effective mass and increase of quasiparticle weight, manifested in
transfer of spectral weight from high to low frequencies in one- and
two-particle spectral functions. This 'undressing' phenomenology resembles
observations in transport, photoemission and optical experiments in high T_c
cuprates. This behavior is contrasted with that of a conventional electron-hole
symmetric Holstein-like model with attractive on-site interaction, where
pairing is associated with 'dressing' instead of 'undressing'
Kinetic energy driven superconductivity, the origin of the Meissner effect, and the reductionist frontier
Is superconductivity associated with a lowering or an increase of the kinetic
energy of the charge carriers? Conventional BCS theory predicts that the
kinetic energy of carriers increases in the transition from the normal to the
superconducting state. However, substantial experimental evidence obtained in
recent years indicates that in at least some superconductors the opposite
occurs. Motivated in part by these experiments many novel mechanisms of
superconductivity have recently been proposed where the transition to
superconductivity is associated with a lowering of the kinetic energy of the
carriers. However none of these proposed unconventional mechanisms explores the
fundamental reason for kinetic energy lowering nor its wider implications. Here
I propose that kinetic energy lowering is at the root of the Meissner effect,
the most fundamental property of superconductors. The physics can be understood
at the level of a single electron atom: kinetic energy lowering and enhanced
diamagnetic susceptibility are intimately connected. According to the theory of
hole superconductivity, superconductors expel negative charge from their
interior driven by kinetic energy lowering and in the process expel any
magnetic field lines present in their interior. Associated with this we predict
the existence of a macroscopic electric field in the interior of
superconductors and the existence of macroscopic quantum zero-point motion in
the form of a spin current in the ground state of superconductors (spin
Meissner effect). In turn, the understanding of the role of kinetic energy
lowering in superconductivity suggests a new way to understand the fundamental
origin of kinetic energy lowering in quantum mechanics quite generally
Loop algorithms for quantum simulations of fermion models on lattices
Two cluster algorithms, based on constructing and flipping loops, are
presented for worldline quantum Monte Carlo simulations of fermions and are
tested on the one-dimensional repulsive Hubbard model. We call these algorithms
the loop-flip and loop-exchange algorithms. For these two algorithms and the
standard worldline algorithm, we calculated the autocorrelation times for
various physical quantities and found that the ordinary worldline algorithm,
which uses only local moves, suffers from very long correlation times that
makes not only the estimate of the error difficult but also the estimate of the
average values themselves difficult. These difficulties are especially severe
in the low-temperature, large- regime. In contrast, we find that new
algorithms, when used alone or in combinations with themselves and the standard
algorithm, can have significantly smaller autocorrelation times, in some cases
being smaller by three orders of magnitude. The new algorithms, which use
non-local moves, are discussed from the point of view of a general prescription
for developing cluster algorithms. The loop-flip algorithm is also shown to be
ergodic and to belong to the grand canonical ensemble. Extensions to other
models and higher dimensions is briefly discussed.Comment: 36 pages, RevTex ver.
Electromotive forces and the Meissner effect puzzle
In a voltaic cell, positive (negative) ions flow from the low (high)
potential electrode to the high (low) potential electrode, driven by an
`electromotive force' which points in opposite direction and overcomes the
electric force. Similarly in a superconductor charge flows in direction
opposite to that dictated by the Faraday electric field as the magnetic field
is expelled in the Meissner effect. The puzzle is the same in both cases: what
drives electric charges against electromagnetic forces? I propose that the
answer is also the same in both cases: kinetic energy lowering, or `quantum
pressure'
Towards an understanding of hole superconductivity
From the very beginning K. Alex M\"uller emphasized that the materials he and
George Bednorz discovered in 1986 were superconductors. Here I would
like to share with him and others what I believe to be key reason for why
high cuprates as well as all other superconductors are hole
superconductors, which I only came to understand a few months ago. This paper
is dedicated to Alex M\"uller on the occasion of his 90th birthday.Comment: Dedicated to Alex M\"uller on the Occasion of his 90th Birthday.
arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1703.0977
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