Analytic expressions for the Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer (BCS) gap of a many-electron system with the BCS model interaction are obtained in one, two, and three dimensions in the weak coupling limit, but for arbitrary interaction width ν≡ℏωD/EF, 0<ν<∞. Here ℏωD is the maximum energy of a force-mediating boson, and EF is the Fermi energy (which is fixed by the electronic density). Our results address both phononic (ν≪1) as well as nonphononic (e.g., exciton, magnon, plasmon, etc.) pairing mechanisms where the mediating boson energies are not small compared with EF, provided weak electron–boson coupling prevails. The essential singularity in coupling, sometimes erroneously attributed to the two-dimensional character of the BCS model interaction with ν≪1, is shown to appear in one, two, and three dimensions before the limit ν→0 is taken.
The Cooper pair eigenvalue equation is solved exactly for the free-electron density of states in one, two, and three dimensions. The two-dimensional (2-D) case is essentially the original derivation of Cooper, as is the three-dimensional case if the interaction is restricted to the vicinity of the Fermi surface. The essential singularity in coupling, familiar in 2-D quantum binding in a well, and sometimes erroneously attributed to the two-dimensional character of the BCS model interaction which is nonzero only very near the Fermi surface, appears in all three cases.
Analytic expressions are derived for the root-mean-square (rms) radius of a pair of fermions in a BCS many-fermion state in one, two, and three dimensions, in terms of the BCS gap energy and the associated chemical potential. These expressions are valid for any coupling strength of any pair interaction model implying a momentum-independent gap energy. The latter holds, e.g., for an attractive \ensuremath{\delta} pair potential examined in the one-dimensional (1D) case (whose N-fermion ground state can be determined exactly) or for the BCS (electron-phonon) model interaction in any dimension. Weak-coupling and/or high-density limits for the rms radius are identical in 1D, 2D, and 3D, and reduce to the familiar well-known Pippard result to within a factor of order unity. In contrast, strong-coupling and/or low-density limits coincide in 1D and 3D, but differ by a factor of order unity in the 2D limit, and in each case are essentially the size of a single, isolated pair. The 1D \ensuremath{\delta} interaction McGuire-Yang-Gaudin many-fermion model is studied in detail. The interaction renormalization scheme of Miyake and of Randeria, Duan, and Shieh, and the BCS interaction model, both in 2D, are employed to analyze cuprate superconductor empirical results. Reasonable agreement between theoretical rms radii with experimental coherence lengths suggests that cuprates can be described moderately well as weakly coupled superconductors within the BCS-Bose formalism.
Following an approach similar to that of Miyake or Randeria, Duan, and Shieh in two dimensions, we study a three-dimensional many-fermion gas at zero temperature interacting via some short-ranged two-body potential. To accommodate a possible singularity (e.g., the Coulomb repulsion) in the interaction, the potential is eliminated in favor of the two-body scattering t-matrix, the low-energy form of which is expressible in terms of the s-wave scattering length
as. The BCS gap equation for s-wave pairing is then solved simultaneously with the number equation in order to self-consistently obtain the zero-temperature BCS gap \ensuremath{\Delta} as well as the chemical potential \ensuremath{\mu} as functions of the dimensionless coupling variable \ensuremath{\lambda}\ensuremath{\equiv}
kFas, where
kF is the Fermi momentum. Results are valid for arbitrary coupling strength, and in the weak coupling limit reproduce the standard BCS results. Finally, root-mean-square pair sizes are obtained as a function of \ensuremath{\lambda} and compared with experimental values.
Starting from H. Fröhlich's second-quantized Hamiltonian for a
d-dimensional electron gas in interaction with lattice phonons describing the quantum vibrations of a metal, we present a rigorous mathematical derivation of the superconducting state, following the principles laid out originally in 1957 by J. Bardeen, L. Cooper and J. Schrieffer. As in the series of papers written on the subject in the 90es, of which the present paper is a continuation, the representation of ions as a uniform charge background allows for a
(1+d)-dimensional fermionic quantum-field theoretic reformulation of the model at equilibrium. For simplicity, we restrict in this article to
d=2 dimensions and zero temperature, and disregard effects due to electromagnetic interactions. Under these assumptions, we prove transition from a Fermi liquid state to a superconducting state made up of Cooper pairs of electrons at an energy level
Γϕ∼ℏωDe−π/mλ equal to the mass gap, expressed in terms of the Debye frequency
ωD, electron mass
m and coupling constant
λ. The dynamical
U(1)-symmetry breaking produces at energies lower than the energy gap
Γϕ a Goldstone boson, a non-massive particle described by an effective
(2+1)-dimensional non-linear sigma-model, whose parameters and correlations are computed. The proof relies on a mixture of general concepts and tools (multi-scale cluster expansions, Ward identities), adapted to this quantum many-body problem with its extended infra-red singularity located on the Fermi circle, and a specific
1/N-expansion giving the leading diagrams at intermediate energies. Ladder diagrams are proved to provide the leading behavior in the infra-red limit, in agreement with mean-field theory predictions.
Abstract One of the important steps leading to the successful formulation of the microscopic theory of superconductivity was the model calculation performed by Cooper (1956) which showed that two electrons, interacting above a filled Fermi sea, had a bound state in the presence of an arbitrarily weak attractive interaction. This chapter first examines Cooper’s calculation. The success of the Cooper model calculation in producing a bound state, with its implication that a proper many-body theory would contain a gap in the excitation spectrum, strongly suggests that the ground state wave function should be constructed from pairs of electrons. However, it is difficult to perform calculations using the many-body pair wave function from Cooper’s model. The chapter then introduces the wave function proposed by Bardeen, Cooper, and Schrieffer (BCS) as an alternative.
Remarkably the one-dimensional (1D) many-fermion fluid with pairwise-attractive \ensuremath{\delta}-function interactions is exactly solvable in that one can determine the exact many-body ground-state energy and chemical potential for all values of the coupling strength and/or density. Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) theory is tested in this model by numerically determining the BCS total ground-state energy and chemical potential as a function of the coupling strength and/or density, and comparing with the exact results. As is the case for 2D and 3D theories, two regimes are apparent: (a) a BCS-proper regime of weakly coupled, overlapping Cooper pairs and (b) a Bose-gas regime of strongly interacting fermions which pair to form an ideal Bose gas at low density. In the two extremes the BCS energy and chemical potential are identical to the exact values and are moderately close for intermediate coupling and/or density.