On Superconductivity and Superfluidity
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On Superconductivity and Superfluidity Vitaly L. Ginzburg On Superconductivity and Superfluidity A Scientific Autobiography With 25 Figures 123 Professor Vitaly L. Ginzburg Russian Academy of Sciences P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute Leninsky Prospect 53, 119991 Moscow, Russia Translation from the Russian original version Osverkhprovodimostiiosverkhtekuchesti.Avtobiografia, by V.L. Ginzburg (Moskva: Izdatel’stvo Fiziko-matematicheskoi literatury, 2006) ISBN 978-3-540-68004-8 e-ISBN 978-3-540-68008-6 LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2008937820 © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2009 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broad- casting, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Violations are liable to prosecution under the German Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant pro- tective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Typesetting: Data prepared by the Author and by SPI Kolam Cover design: WMX Design GmbH, Heidelberg SPIN 11908890 Printed on acid-free paper 987654321 springer.com Preface to the English Edition The English version of the book does not differ essentially from the Rus- sian version1. Along with a few notes and new references I included Part II to Article 3 and added some new materials to the ‘Nobel’ autobiography. Furthermore, Article 7 (M. Cardona and W. Marx “Vitaly L. Ginzburg – a bibliometric study”), which was published in Journal of Superconductivity and Novel Magnetism, v. 19, No. 3–5, July 2006 is included as an appendix. My special thanks are due to Prof. Manuel Cardona and Prof. Werner Marx who kindly allowed publishing their paper as an appendix to this book (with some new minor author’s amendments). Also, I am grateful to M.S. Aksent’eva, E.A. Frimer, G.M. Krasnikova and S.G. Rudnev for their assistance in the preparation of the English manuscript. Moscow, September 2008 V.L. Ginzburg 1 V.L. Ginzburg, O sverkhprovodimosti i o sverkhtekuchesti. Avtobiografia (Moskva: Izdatel’styvo Fiziko-matematicheskoi literatury, 2006) Preface to the Russian Edition The Nobel Prize in Physics, 2003 was awarded to A.A. Abrikosov, A.J. Leg- gett and myself ‘for pioneering contribution to the theory of superconductors and superfluids’. It does not mean that the contribution was made in joint works with these authors. Specifically, I do not have any joint publications with A.A. Abrikosov and A.J. Leggett. In conformity with the established rules, I prepared the Nobel Lecture and delivered it in Stockholm, on December 8, 2003, and have also written the autobiography. The copyright for both these texts belongs to the Nobel Foundation, and they already appeared in English. As in the previous years, all 2003 Nobel Lectures with autobiographies were published in the book Les Prix Nobel/The Nobel Prizes 2003 (Nobel Prizes, Presentations, Biographies, and Lectures). Moreover, lectures, usually without autobiographies, are pub- lished in different journals. All Nobel Lectures in Physics 2003 were published in Russian in the journal Uspekhi Fizicheskikh Nauk v. 174, No. 11 (2004) [En- glish edition Physics-Uspekhi v. 47, No. 11 (2004)]. By the way, this journal always publishes the Nobel Lectures in Physics, and sometimes in other sci- ences as well. Even before the Nobel Foundation published the lectures, they kindly granted us the permission for placing my Lecture and autobiography in Russian on the site of Physics-Uspekhi www.ufn.ru. It is the publication of these materials that is the main purpose of publish- ing this book. At the same time, it also contains some other related or auxil- iary materials. For example, the article “Superconductivity and Superfluidity (What was Done and What was Not Done)” is a rather extensive survey of everything which I did in the field of superconductivity and superfluidity. This survey was written in 1997 and published in Physics-Uspekhi and later in my book “About Science, Myself and Others” (Moscow: Fizmatlit, 2003) [The English edition was published by the Institute of Physics Publishing in 2005). When it was prepared for publication in this book, some minor changes were brought into it, in comparison with the Russian publication of 2003. This survey is added by a small article “Several Notes on Studies of Supercon- ductivity” (Uspekhi Fizicheskikh Nauk v. 175, p. 187, 2005) [Physics-Uspekhi VIII 0 Preface to the Russian Edition v. 48, p. 173 (2005)]. It is followed by my joint work with L.D. Landau, which was published in 1950 and occupies a special place in the studies in the field of the theory of superconductivity. The book is concluded by the autobiography written at the request of the Nobel Foundation (‘the Nobel’ autobiography) and the article ‘Scientific Autobiography – an Attempt’ published earlier in my book “On Physics and Astrophysics” (1992, 1995) [The English edition under the title “The Physics of a Lifetime” was published by Springer in 2001]. Publishing this article here seems appropriate to me, since in the ‘Nobel’ au- tobiography I do not at all touch on the contents of my scientific works. At the end of the articles there are comments prepared for the present edition (the references to them are marked in the text by Arabic figures with an asterisk above the line). Taking advantage of this opportunity, I thank M.S. Aksent’eva, T.S. Vais- berg, S.V. Volkova and L.A. Paniushkina for their assistance in the prepara- tion of this manuscript. Moscow, September, 2005 V.L. Ginzburg Contents Preface to the English Edition ................................. V Preface to the Russian Edition ................................VII 1 On Superconductivity and Superfluidity (What I Have and Have Not Managed to Do), As Well As on the ∗ ‘Physical Minimum’ at the Beginning of the 21st Century1 1 1.1 Introduction ............................................ 1 1.2 A Brief Account of My Activity in the Field of Superconductivity, Prior to the Advent of High-Temperature Superconductors ........................................ 2 1.3 On High-Temperature and Room-Temperature Superconductors (HTSCs and RTSCs) ..................... 10 1.4 Thermoelectric Phenomena in the Superconducting State ..... 15 1.5 Superfluidity Research and the Ψ-Theory of Superfluidity .... 21 1.6 The ‘Physical Minimum’: What Problems of Physics and Astrophysics Seem Now to be Especially Important and Interesting in the Beginning of the 21st Century? ............ 27 1.7 Notes .................................................. 31 References .................................................. 31 2 Superconductivity and Superfluidity (What was Done ∗ and What was Not Done)1 ................................ 35 2.1 Introduction. Early Works ................................ 35 2.2 The Ψ-Theory of Superconductivity (The Ginzburg–Landau Theory) ................................................ 38 2.3 The Development of the Ψ-Theory of Superconductivity ...... 50 2.4 The Ψ-Theory of Superfluidity ............................ 59 2.5 Thermoelectric Phenomena in Superconductors ............. 65 2.6 Miscellanea (Superfluidity, Astrophysics, and Other Things) . 71 2.7 High-Temperature Superconductivity ...................... 74 X Contents 2.8 Concluding Remarks ..................................... 83 2.9 Notes .................................................. 85 References .................................................. 87 3 A Few Comments on Superconductivity Research ......... 99 3.1 PartI.................................................. 99 3.2 PartII.................................................106 References ..................................................109 4 On the Theory of Superconductivity (by V.L. Ginzburg and L.D. Landau) .........................113 4.1 Introduction ............................................113 4.2 Basic Equations .........................................115 4.3 The Superconducting Half-Space ..........................121 4.4 The Surface Energy at the Boundary of the Superconducting and Normal Phases ......................................124 4.5 Superconducting Plates (Films) ...........................127 4.6 Comments on the Present Edition .........................135 References ..................................................137 5 ‘Nobel’ Autobiography (A Supplement to the Nobel Lecture, 2003) .............................................139 Notes on the English Translation ...............................166 6 A Scientific Autobiography: An Attempt ..................175 6.1 Introduction ............................................175 6.2 Classical and Quantum Electrodynamics ...................176 6.3 Radiation by Uniformly Moving Sources (the Vavilov– Cherenkov and Doppler Effects, Transition Radiation, and Related Phenomena) .....................................178 6.4 About This Chapter .....................................181 6.5 Higher Spins ............................................183 6.6 The Propagation of Electromagnetic Waves in Plasmas (in the Ionosphere). Radio Astronomy .........................185