The Meissner effect in superconductors: emergence versus reductionism

TL;DR

This paper examines the fundamental nature of the Meissner effect in superconductors, contrasting emergence-based explanations with reductionist approaches involving charge motion, and discusses implications for understanding superconductivity.

Contribution

It critically analyzes the conventional and reductionist theories of the Meissner effect, highlighting unresolved issues and proposing the importance of charge motion in explaining magnetic field expulsion.

Findings

Questions about momentum conservation remain unresolved in conventional theory.

Radial charge motion may be essential to fully explain the Meissner effect.

Implications for superconductivity mechanisms and material discovery strategies.

Abstract

The Meissner effect, the expulsion of magnetic field from the interior of a metal entering the superconducting state, is arguably the most fundamental property of superconductors, discovered in 1933. The conventional theory of superconductivity developed in 1957 is generally believed to fully explain the Meissner effect. We will review the arguments that support this consensus, rooted in the concept of emergence. However, recent work has shown that there are questions related to momentum conservation in the process of magnetic field expulsion that have not been addressed within the conventional theory. Within a reductionist approach, it has been proposed that those questions can only be resolved by introducing physics that is not part of the conventional theory, namely that there is radial motion of electric charge in the transition process. This is consistent with the behavior of classical plasmas, where motion of magnetic field lines is always associated with motion of charges. We review how this approach explains puzzles associated with momentum transfer between electrons and ions in the Meissner effect. Whether or not radial charge motion is associated with the Meissner effect has fundamental implications regarding superconductivity mechanisms in materials and regarding strategies to search for new materials with higher superconducting transition temperatures. Therefore, adjudication of this question is urgent and important.