Some remarks on the theory of superconductivity

MAY 01, 1966

When a metal becomes a superconductor the conduction electrons pair off, and quantum‐mechanical effects can be seen macroscopically. However, theorists are still looking for a satisfactory microscopic theory to explain the phenomena.

DOI: 10.1063/1.3048256

Felix Bloch

SUPERCONDUCTIVITY THEORY has been approached in several ways. The most direct but also the most difficult is the attempt to derive all facts from a detailed microscopic theory, and the most significant steps in this direction have been made since 1957 through the theory of John Bardeen, Leon N. Cooper and J. Robert Schreiffer. Another approach, less fundamental but often very instructive, is based on suitably chosen simple models, of which the degenerate ideal Bose gas, suggested by M. R. Schafroth in 1955, has proven to be particularly useful.

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More about the authors

Felix Bloch, Stanford University.