An Attempt to Improve Understanding of the Physics behind Superconductor Phase Transitions and Stability

Abstract

Under disturbances, superconductors may experience sudden, most undesirable phase transitions (quench) from superconducting to normal conducting state. Quench may lead to damage or even to catastrophic conductor failure. A superconductor is stable if it does not quench. Exact determination of superconductor transient, resistive states (flux flow, Ohmic) thus is mandatory to safely avoid quench. This request sharp comparison of local, transient conductor temperature and current transport density with local values of critical superconductor temperature, TCrit, and critical current density, JCrit, and the latter is a strong function of temperature. Numerical, Finite Element simulations reported previously and in this paper have provided the requested, transient temperature distribution; under disturbances, this distribution may strongly be non-uniform. But what happens if the other variable, TCrit, might not uniquely be defined? A multi-physics model (fractional parentage, Pauli selection rule, time of flight-concept with a mediating Boson, the Yukawa model and the uncertainty principle) provides relaxation time at which TCrit, as the thermodynamic, equilibrium state, finally would be obtained. But relaxation time diverges the closer the electron system approaches the phase transition, which questions existence of uniquely defined TCrit within finite process time. In this paper, focus is on multiple internal heat transfer (solid conduction and, in thin films, radiation), a suggested operator method to solve the incompleteness problem of radiative transfer, and time dependence of the order parameter obtained from the quantum-mechanical model. Traditional stability models cannot provide this information.