Given the Debye temperature of an elemental superconductor (SC) and its Tc, BCS theory enables one to predict the value of its gap Δ0 at T = 0, or vice versa. This monograph shows that non-elemental SCs can be similarly dealt with via the generalized BCS equations (GBCSEs) which, given any two parameters of the set {Tc, Δ10, Δ20 > Δ10}, enable one to predict the third. Also given herein are new equations for the critical magnetic field and critical current density of an elemental and a non-elemental SC — equations that are derived directly from those that govern pairing in them.The monograph includes topics that are usually not covered in any one text on superconductivity, e.g., BCS-BEC crossover physics, the long-standing puzzle posed by SrTiO3, and heavy-fermion superconductors — all of which are still imperfectly understood and therefore continue to avidly engage theoreticians. It suggests that addressing the Tcs, Δs and other properties (e.g., number densities of charge carriers) of high-Tc SCs via GBCSEs incorporating chemical potential may lead to tangible clues about raising their Tcs. The final chapter in this monograph deals with solar emission lines and quarkonium spectra because of a feature common between them and superconductivity: existence of a bound state in a medium at finite temperature. This is a problem on which the author has worked for more than 25 years. The treatment in the text is elementary — even those who have only a cursory familiarity with Feynman diagrams should be able to follow it without much difficulty.

Since the discovery of superconductivity, a great number of theoretical and experimental efforts have been made to describe this new phase of matter that emerged in many body systems. In this regard, theoretical models have been presented; the most famous of which was the BCS theory that can only describe conventional superconductors. With the discovery of new class superconductors, the superconducting mechanism became a new challenge in the field of condensed matter physics. This unexpected discovery opened a new area in the history of superconductivity, and experimental researchers started trying to find new compounds in this class of superconductors. These superconductors are often characterized by the anisotropic character in the superconducting gap function with nodes along a certain direction in the momentum space. Since the pairing interaction has an important role in the superconducting gap structure, its determination is very important to explain the basic pairing mechanism.In this regard, this book includes valuable theoretical and experimental discussions about the properties of superconductors. Here you will find valuable research describing the properties of unconventional superconductors.

This thesis makes significant advances towards an understanding of superconductivity in the cuprate family of unconventional, high-temperature superconductors. Even though the high-temperature superconductors were discovered over 35 years ago, there is not yet a general consensus on an acceptable theory of superconductivity in these materials. One of the early proposals suggested that collective magnetic excitations of the conduction electrons could lead them to form pairs, which in turn condense to form the superconducting state at a critical temperature Tc. Quantitative calculations of Tc using experimental data were, however, not available to verify the applicability of this magnetic mechanism. In this thesis, the author constructed an angle-resolved photoemission apparatus that could provide sufficiently accurate data of the electronic excitation spectra of samples in the normal state, data which was furthermore unusually devoid of any surface contamination. The author also applied the Bethe-Salpeter method to his uncommonly pristine and precise normal state data, and was able to predict the approximate superconducting transition temperatures of different samples. This rare combination of experiment with sophisticated theoretical calculations leads to the conclusion that antiferromagnetic correlations are a viable candidate for the pairing interaction in the cuprate superconductors.

This book is devoted to superconductivity, which is one of the most interesting problems in physics. In accordance with the outline of the book, it treats the key problems in the field of superconductivity, in particular, it discusses the mechanism(s) of superconductivity. This book is useful for researchers and graduate students in the fields of solid state physics, quantum field theory, and many-body theory.