Did Herbert Fröhlich predict or postdict the isotope effect in superconductors?

Abstract

Herbert Fröhlich is generally credited with having predicted the fundamental role of electron-phonon interactions in superconductivity in 1950, and in particular the isotope effect, without any experimental input. Here we examine the facts on which this belief is based and point out that whether or not the generally accepted view is true depends on the meaning of the word {\it shortly}.

arXiv commentComments from readers are welcome and appreciated, particularly with first-hand information on this topic and with relevant references I may have missed. Volume # in refs. 2 and 3 was incorrect in v1

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Superconductivity in the elements, alloys and simple compounds
• Correcting 100 years of misunderstanding: electric fields in superconductors, hole superconductivity, and the Meissner effect
• Exact mapping from short-ranged harmonic elastic models of spin crossover materials to Ising models with interactions at all length scales