Failed theories of superconductivity

Abstract

Almost half a century passed between the discovery of superconductivity by Kamerlingh Onnes and the theoretical explanation of the phenomenon by Bardeen, Cooper and Schrieffer. During the intervening years the brightest minds in theoretical physics tried and failed to develop a microscopic understanding of the effect. A summary of some of those unsuccessful attempts to understand superconductivity not only demonstrates the extraordinary achievement made by formulating the BCS theory, but also illustrates that mistakes are a natural and healthy part of the scientific discourse, and that inapplicable, even incorrect theories can turn out to be interesting and inspiring.

14 pages, 3 figures (typos fixed), to appear in: Bardeen Cooper and Schrieffer: 50 YEARS, edited by Leon N Cooper and Dmitri Feldman

References in corpus (3)

• Theory of Superconductivity in Strongly Correlated Electron Systems
• Sliding Density-Wave in Sr_{14}Cu_{24}O_{41} Ladder Compounds
• Einstein and the Early Theory of Superconductivity, 1919-1922

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Generalized Bloch theorem and chiral transport phenomena
• Quantum thermodynamics of overdamped modes in local and spatially dispersive materials
• Topologically stable gapped state in a layered superconductor
• Cold numbers: Superconducting supercomputers and presumptive anomaly
• Persistent current-carrying state of charge quasuparticles in $np$-ribbon featuring single Dirac cone