14,194 research outputs found
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
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
Modelling tri-bimaximal neutrino mixing
We model tri-bimaximal lepton mixing from first principles in a way that
avoids the problem of the vacuum alignment characteristic of such models. This
is achieved by using a softly broken A4 symmetry realized with an isotriplet
fermion, also triplet under A4. No scalar A4-triplet is introduced. This
represents one possible realization of general schemes characterized by the
minimal set of either three or five physical parameters. In the three parameter
versions mee vanishes, while in the five parameter schemes the absolute scale
of neutrino mass, although not predicted, is related to the two Majorana
phases. The model realization we discuss is potentially testable at the LHC
through the peculiar leptonic decay patterns of the fermionic and scalar
triplets.Comment: some changing, reference adde
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
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
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