Can Topological Transitions be Exploited to Engineer Intrinsically Quench-resistant Wires?

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential of tuning superconductors to topological transition points to intrinsically enhance their resistance to quenches, using numerical simulations to assess the impact.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach of exploiting topological transitions in superconductors to improve quench resistance, supported by numerical modeling.

Findings

Lowering the specific heat exponent can reduce quench likelihood

Topological transitions influence low-temperature specific heat

Effects observed are small in the simplified model

Abstract

We investigate whether by synthesising superconductors that are tuned to a topological, node-reconstruction transition point we could create superconducting wires that are intrinsically resilient to quenches. Recent work shows that the exponent characterising the temperature dependence of the specific heat of a nodal superconductor is lowered over a region of the phase diagram near topological transitions where nodal lines form or reconnect. Our idea is that the resulting enhancement of the low-temperature specific heat could have potential application in the prevention of superconductor quenches. We perform numerical simulations of a simplified superconductor quench model. Results show that decreasing the specific heat exponent can prevent a quench from occurring and improve quench resilience, though in our simple model the effects are small. Further work will be necessary to establish the practical feasibility of this approach.