Superconductivity from Hole Undressing

Photoemission and optical experiments indicate that the transition to superconductivity in cuprates is an 'undressing' transition . In photoemission this is seen as a coherent quasiparticle peak emerging from an incoherent background, in optics as violation of the Ferrell-Glover-Tinkham sum rule indicating effective mass reduction of superconducting carriers. We propose that this is a manifestation of the fundamental electron-hole asymmetry of condensed matter described by the theory of hole superconductivity. The theory asserts that electrons in nearly empty bands and holes in nearly full bands are fundamentally different : the former yield high conductivity and normal metals, the latter yield low normal state conductivity and high temperature superconductivity. This is because the normal state transport of electrons is coherent and that of holes is incoherent. We explain how this asymmetry arises from the Coulomb interaction between electrons in atoms and the nature of atomic orbitals, and propose a simple Hamiltonian to describe it. A $universal$ mechanism for superconductivity follows from this physics, whereby dressed hole carriers undress by pairing, turning (partially) into electrons and becoming more mobile in the superconducting state.Comment: Presented at the Third International Conference on New Theories, Discoveries, and Applications of Superconductors and Related Materials (New3SC-3), Hawaii, January 2001, to be published in Physica

Consequences of charge imbalance in superconductors within the theory of hole superconductivity

The theory of hole superconductivity proposes that the fundamental asymmetry between electrons and holes in solids is responsible for superconductivity. Here we point out a remarkable consequence of this theory: a tendency for negative charge to be expelled from the bulk of the superconductor towards the surface. Experimentally observable consequences of this physics are discussed

Correcting 100 years of misunderstanding: electric fields in superconductors, hole superconductivity, and the Meissner effect

From the outset of superconductivity research it was assumed that no electrostatic fields could exist inside superconductors, and this assumption was incorporated into conventional London electrodynamics. Yet the London brothers themselves initially (in 1935) had proposed an electrodynamic theory of superconductors that allowed for static electric fields in their interior, which they unfortunately discarded a year later. I argue that the Meissner effect in superconductors necessitates the existence of an electrostatic field in their interior, originating in the expulsion of negative charge from the interior to the surface when a metal becomes superconducting. The theory of hole superconductivity predicts this physics, and associated with it a macroscopic spin current in the ground state of superconductors ("Spin Meissner effect"), qualitatively different from what is predicted by conventional BCS-London theory. A new London-like electrodynamic description of superconductors is proposed to describe this physics. Within this theory superconductivity is driven by lowering of quantum kinetic energy, the fact that the Coulomb repulsion strongly depends on the character of the charge carriers, namely whether electron- or hole-like, and the spin-orbit interaction. The electron-phonon interaction does not play a significant role, yet the existence of an isotope effect in many superconductors is easily understood. In the strong coupling regime the theory appears to favor local charge inhomogeneity. The theory is proposed to apply to all superconducting materials, from the elements to the high $T_c$ cuprates and pnictides, is highly falsifiable, and explains a wide variety of experimental observations.Comment: Proceedings of the conference "Quantum phenomena in complex matter 2011 - Stripes 2011", Rome, 10 July -16 July 2011, to be published in J. Supercond. Nov. Mag

A superformula for neutrinoless double beta decay II: The short range part

A general Lorentz-invariant parameterization for the short-range part of the 0vBB decay rate is derived. Combined with the long range part already published this general parameterization in terms of effective B-L violating couplings allows one to extract the 0vBB limits on arbitrary lepton number violating theories.Comment: 8 pages, LaTeX, 2 figure

Why non-superconducting metallic elements become superconducting under high pressure

We predict that simple metals and early transition metals that become superconducting under high pressures will show a change in sign of their Hall coefficient from negative to positive under pressure. If verified, this will strongly suggest that hole carriers play a fundamental role in `conventional' superconductivity, as predicted by the theory of hole superconductivity.Comment: Submitted to M2S-IX Tokyo 200

Meissner effect, Spin Meissner effect and charge expulsion in superconductors

The Meissner effect and the Spin Meissner effect are the spontaneous generation of charge and spin current respectively near the surface of a metal making a transition to the superconducting state. The Meissner effect is well known but, I argue, not explained by the conventional theory, the Spin Meissner effect has yet to be detected. I propose that both effects take place in all superconductors, the first one in the presence of an applied magnetostatic field, the second one even in the absence of applied external fields. Both effects can be understood under the assumption that electrons expand their orbits and thereby lower their quantum kinetic energy in the transition to superconductivity. Associated with this process, the metal expels negative charge from the interior to the surface and an electric field is generated in the interior. The resulting charge current can be understood as arising from the magnetic Lorentz force on radially outgoing electrons, and the resulting spin current can be understood as arising from a spin Hall effect originating in the Rashba-like coupling of the electron magnetic moment to the internal electric field. The associated electrodynamics is qualitatively different from London electrodynamics, yet can be described by a small modification of the conventional London equations. The stability of the superconducting state and its macroscopic phase coherence hinge on the fact that the orbital angular momentum of the carriers of the spin current is found to be exactly $\hbar/2$, indicating a topological origin. The simplicity and universality of our theory argue for its validity, and the occurrence of superconductivity in many classes of materials can be understood within our theory.Comment: Submitted to SLAFES XX Proceeding

Towards an understanding of hole superconductivity

From the very beginning K. Alex M\"uller emphasized that the materials he and George Bednorz discovered in 1986 were $hole$ superconductors. Here I would like to share with him and others what I believe to be $the$ key reason for why high $T_c$ cuprates as well as all other superconductors are hole superconductors, which I only came to understand a few months ago. This paper is dedicated to Alex M\"uller on the occasion of his 90th birthday.Comment: Dedicated to Alex M\"uller on the Occasion of his 90th Birthday. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1703.0977

Magnetic ordering of itinerant systems; the role of kinetic exchange interaction

The possibility of ferromagnetic ordering is revisited in the band model. The coherent potential approximation decoupling has been used for the strong on-site Coulomb interaction. The driving forces towards the ferromagnetism are the on-site and inter-site molecular fields coming from different Coulomb interactions. Another driving force is the lowering of the kinetic energy with growing magnetic moment coming from the dependence of the hopping integrals on occupation of the neighboring sites involved in hopping. This effect is described by the hopping interaction, $\Delta t$, and by what we call the exchange-hopping interaction, $t_{ex}$. The exchange-hopping interaction, which is the difference in hopping integrals for different occupation of neighboring lattice sites, acts in analogous way to the Hund's magnetic exchange interaction. The results are calculated for semi-elliptic density of states (DOS) and for the distorted semi-elliptic DOS with the maximum around the Fermi energy. They show a natural tendency towards the magnetic ordering at the end of the 3d row for the DOS with maximum density around the Fermi energy, when the hopping integrals grow with the occupation of the neighboring lattice sites.Comment: 12 pages, 13 figure

Quasiparticle undressing in a dynamic Hubbard model: exact diagonalization study

Dynamic Hubbard models have been proposed as extensions of the conventional Hubbard model to describe the orbital relaxation that occurs upon double occupancy of an atomic orbital. These models give rise to pairing of holes and superconductivity in certain parameter ranges. Here we explore the changes in carrier effective mass and quasiparticle weight and in one- and two-particle spectral functions that occur in a dynamic Hubbard model upon pairing, by exact diagonalization of small systems. It is found that pairing is associated with lowering of effective mass and increase of quasiparticle weight, manifested in transfer of spectral weight from high to low frequencies in one- and two-particle spectral functions. This 'undressing' phenomenology resembles observations in transport, photoemission and optical experiments in high T_c cuprates. This behavior is contrasted with that of a conventional electron-hole symmetric Holstein-like model with attractive on-site interaction, where pairing is associated with 'dressing' instead of 'undressing'

The Role of Boundary Conditions in the Real-Space Renormalization Group

We show that the failure of the real-space RG method in the 1D tight-binding model is not intrinsic to the method as considered so far but depends on the choice of boundary conditions. For fixed BC's the failure does happen. For free BC's we present a new analytical block RG-method which gives the exact ground state of the model and the correct $1/N^2$-law for the energy of the first excited state in the large $N$(size)-limit. We also give a reconstruction method for the wave-functions of the excited states.Comment: LATEX file, 12 pages, 5 figures available upon reques