{"title":"Does the Meissner effect violate the second law of thermodynamics?","authors":"J.E. Hirsch","doi":"10.1016/j.physc.2024.1354618","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In Entropy 24, 83 (2022) (Nikulov 2022), titled “The Law of Entropy Increase and the Meissner Effect”, its author Alexey Nikulov argues that the Meissner effect exhibited by type I superconductors violates the second law of thermodynamics. Contrary to this claim, I show that the Meissner effect is consistent with the second law of thermodynamics provided that a mechanism exists for the supercurrent to start and stop without generation of Joule heat. The theory of hole superconductivity provides such a mechanism, the conventional theory of superconductivity does not. It requires the existence of hole carriers in the normal state of the system.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20159,"journal":{"name":"Physica C-superconductivity and Its Applications","volume":"629 ","pages":"Article 1354618"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Physica C-superconductivity and Its Applications","FirstCategoryId":"101","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921453424001825","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"PHYSICS, APPLIED","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
In Entropy 24, 83 (2022) (Nikulov 2022), titled “The Law of Entropy Increase and the Meissner Effect”, its author Alexey Nikulov argues that the Meissner effect exhibited by type I superconductors violates the second law of thermodynamics. Contrary to this claim, I show that the Meissner effect is consistent with the second law of thermodynamics provided that a mechanism exists for the supercurrent to start and stop without generation of Joule heat. The theory of hole superconductivity provides such a mechanism, the conventional theory of superconductivity does not. It requires the existence of hole carriers in the normal state of the system.
期刊介绍:
Physica C (Superconductivity and its Applications) publishes peer-reviewed papers on novel developments in the field of superconductivity. Topics include discovery of new superconducting materials and elucidation of their mechanisms, physics of vortex matter, enhancement of critical properties of superconductors, identification of novel properties and processing methods that improve their performance and promote new routes to applications of superconductivity.
The main goal of the journal is to publish:
1. Papers that substantially increase the understanding of the fundamental aspects and mechanisms of superconductivity and vortex matter through theoretical and experimental methods.
2. Papers that report on novel physical properties and processing of materials that substantially enhance their critical performance.
3. Papers that promote new or improved routes to applications of superconductivity and/or superconducting materials, and proof-of-concept novel proto-type superconducting devices.
The editors of the journal will select papers that are well written and based on thorough research that provide truly novel insights.