Abstract
The thermodynamic fluctuations of the order parameter in a superconductor are shown to be able to cause the decay of a “persistent” current in a ring-shaped conductor. Calculations have been made of the lifetimes of these currents, which indicate that in very thin wires this decay should be detectable. We also show that a true phase transition, distinguished by an infinitely sharp change of resistivity, is possible only in an infinite three-dimensional specimen. In one- and two-dimensional samples, on the other hand, no infinitely sharp change of resistivity occurs but, instead, the resistance drops smoothly and rapidly towards zero as T →> 0°K.
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© 1996 Plenum Press, New York
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Little, W.A. (1996). Decay of Persistent Currents in Small Superconductors. In: Cabrera, B., Gutfreund, H., Kresin, V. (eds) From High-Temperature Superconductivity to Microminiature Refrigeration. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0411-1_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0411-1_8
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-8040-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-4613-0411-1
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