Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Higgs Boson in Superconductors

  • Published:
Journal of Low Temperature Physics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Superfluid helium, describable by a two-component order parameter, exhibits only the Bogolubov mode with energy →0 at long wavelengths, while aLorentz-invariant theory with a two-component order parameter exhibits a finite energy mode at long wavelengths (the Higgs boson), besides the above mass-less mode. The mass-less mode moves to high energies if it couples to electromagnetic fields (the Anderson-Higgs mechanism). Superconductors, on the other hand have been theoretically and experimentally shown to exhibit both modes. This occurs because the excitations in superconductors have an (approximate) particle-hole symmetry and therefore show a similarity to Lorentz-invariant theories.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  1. N.N. Bogolubov, J. Phys. U.S.S.R. II, 23 (1947).

    Google Scholar 

  2. P.W. Anderson, Phys. Rev. 110, 827 (1958).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Y. Nambu, Phys. Rev. 117, 648 (1960); Y. Nambu and G. Jon Lasinio, Phys. Rev. 122, 345 (1961).

    Google Scholar 

  4. R. Sooryakumar and M.V. Klein, Phys. Rev. Lett. 45, 660 (1980).

    Google Scholar 

  5. P.B. Littlewood and C.M. Varma, Phys. Rev. Lett. 47, 811 (1981); Phys. Rev. B 26, 4883 (1982).

    Google Scholar 

  6. It was pointed out by Y. Nambu and P. Higgs that the modes derived in Ref. 5 were the equivalent of the Higgs bosons for superconductors; see in: The Rise of the Standard Model, L. Hoddeson, L. Brown, M. Riordan and M. Dresden, eds., Cambridge University Press (Cambridge, 1997), comments by P. Higgs (p. 509) and by Y. Nambu (p. 514); also private communication by Y. Nambu to the author (1985); see also, Y. Nambu, Physica 15D, 147 (1985).

    Google Scholar 

  7. F. Halzen and A.D. Martin, Quarks and Leptons, John Wiley, New York (1984); J.W. Negele and H. Orland, Quantum Many-Particle Systems, Addison-Wesley, New York (1988), in Chapter 4.4.

    Google Scholar 

  8. E. Abrahams and T. Tsuneto, Phys. Rev. 152, 416 (1966); I.J.R. Aitchison et al., Phys. Rev. B 51, 6531 (1995).

    Google Scholar 

  9. P. Wölfle, Physica 90B, 96 (1977).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, Murray Hill, NJ, 07974

    C. M. Varma

Authors
  1. C. M. Varma
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Varma, C.M. Higgs Boson in Superconductors. Journal of Low Temperature Physics 126, 901–909 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1013890507658

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1013890507658

Keywords

Search

Navigation