Kinetic energy driven superconductivity, the origin of the Meissner effect, and the reductionist frontier

Abstract

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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Cited by in corpus (19)

• The origin of the Meissner effect in new and old superconductors
• Momentum of superconducting electrons and the explanation of the Meissner effect
• The London moment: what a rotating superconductor reveals about superconductivity
• Dynamics of the normal-superconductor phase transition and the puzzle of the Meissner effect
• On the dynamics of the Meissner effect
• Kinetic energy driven superconductivity and superfluidity
• The Bohr superconductor
• Superconductivity, diamagnetism, and the mean inner potential of solids
• Defying inertia: how rotating superconductors generate magnetic fields
• Kinetic energy driven superfluidity and superconductivity and the origin of the Meissner effect
• Meissner effect, Spin Meissner effect and charge expulsion in superconductors
• Correcting 100 years of misunderstanding: electric fields in superconductors, hole superconductivity, and the Meissner effect
• How Alfven's theorem explains the Meissner effect
• Prediction of unexpected behavior of the mean inner potential of superconductors
• Experimental consequences of predicted charge rigidity of superconductors
• Why only hole conductors can be superconductors
• Apparent increase in the thickness of superconducting particles at low temperatures measured by electron holography
• The Meissner effect in superconductors: emergence versus reductionism
• What holes in superconductors reveal about superconductivity