How Alfven's theorem explains the Meissner effect

TL;DR

This paper explains the Meissner effect using Alfven's theorem, proposing that superconductors behave as perfectly conducting fluids that expel magnetic fields, and links this to changes in effective mass of charge carriers.

Contribution

It introduces a novel interpretation of the Meissner effect based on Alfven's theorem, challenging conventional understanding and connecting it to effective mass reduction in superconductors.

Findings

Magnetic field lines move outward in superconductors, consistent with Alfven's theorem.

Effective mass of carriers decreases during the transition to superconductivity.

Conventional explanations of the Meissner effect overlook Alfven's theorem, which this paper emphasizes.

Abstract

Alfven's theorem states that in a perfectly conducting fluid magnetic field lines move with the fluid without dissipation. When a metal becomes superconducting in the presence of a magnetic field, magnetic field lines move from the interior to the surface (Meissner effect) in a reversible way. This indicates that a perfectly conducting fluid is flowing outward. We point this out and show that this fluid carries neither charge nor mass, but carries $effective$ $mass$. This implies that the effective mass of carriers is lowered when a system goes from the normal to the superconducting state, which agrees with the prediction of the unconventional theory of hole superconductivity and with optical experiments in some superconducting materials. The 60-year old conventional understanding of the Meissner effect ignores Alfven's theorem and for that reason we argue that it does not provide a valid understanding of real superconductors.