Effective Field Theory of Superconductivity

TL;DR

This paper develops an effective field theory model for s-wave superconductivity involving complex scalar, gauge, and neutral scalar fields, explaining critical couplings and low critical temperatures through interaction balances and phonon effects.

Contribution

It introduces a novel effective field theory framework incorporating gapless phonons and calculates critical couplings for superconductivity, linking microscopic interactions to macroscopic phases.

Findings

Critical coupling for scalar self-interaction matches type I or II superconductivity.

New Yukawa-type interaction critical coupling between neutral and scalar fields identified.

Discrepancy in photon and phonon speeds explains low critical temperatures.

Abstract

A field theory of a Schr\"{o}dinger type complex scalar field of Cooper pair, a U(1) gauge field of electromagnetism, and a neutral scalar field of gapless acoustic phonon is proposed for superconductivity of s-waves. Presence of the gapless neutral scalar field is justified as low energy residual acoustic phonon degrees in the context of effective field theory. The critical coupling of quartic self-interaction of complex scalar field is computed from a 1-loop level interaction balance between the repulsion mediated by massive degree of the U(1) gauge field and the attraction mediated by massive Higgs degree, in the static limit. The obtained net attraction or repulsion in perturbative regime matches the type I or II superconductivity, respectively. We find the new critical coupling of cubic Yukawa type interaction between the neutral and complex scalar fields from another tree level interaction balance between the Coulomb repulsion mediated by massless degree of the U(1) gauge field and the attraction mediated by the gapless neutral scalar field, in the static limit. Superconducting phase is realized at or in the vicinity of this critical coupling. A huge discrepancy between the propagation speeds of photon and phonon gives a plausible explanation on low critical temperatures in conventional superconductors.