The Bohr superconductor

Abstract

Superconductors have often been described as `giant atoms'. The simplest description of atoms that heralded their quantum understanding was proposed by Bohr in 1913. The Bohr atom starts from some simple assumptions and deduces that the angular momentum of the electron in Bohr orbits is quantized in integer units of $\hbar$. This remarkable result, which does not appear to be implicit in the assumptions of the model, can be interpreted as a `theoretical proof' of the model's validity to describe physical reality at some level. Similarly we point out here that from some simple assumptions it can be deduced that electrons in superconductors reside in mesoscopic orbits with orbital angular momentum $\hbar/2$. This implies that both in superconductors and in ferromagnets the long-range order results from elementary units of identical angular momentum. Similarly to the case of the Bohr atom we propose that this remarkable result is compelling evidence that this physics, which is not part of conventional BCS theory, describes physical reality at some level and heralds a qualitatively new understanding of superconductors.