arXiv subjects

Robert A Smith

Publications and source records attributed to Robert A Smith.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2020

Drude Conductivity of a Granular System

We present a complete derivation of the granular analogue to Drude conductivity using diagrammatic methods. The convergence issues arising when changing the order of momentum and frequency summation are more severe than in the homogeneous case. This is because there are now two momentum sums rather than one, due to the intragrain momentum scrambling in tunnelling events. By careful analytic continuation of the frequency sum, and use of integration by parts, we prove that the system is in the normal (non-superconducting) state, and derive the formula for the granular Drude conductivity expected from Einstein's relation and Fermi's golden rule. We also show that naively performing the momentum sums first gives the correct result, provided that we interpret a divergent frequency sum by analytic continuation using the Hurwitz zeta function.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2011

A New Two-Parameter Family of Potentials with a Tunable Ground State

In a previous paper we solved a countably infinite family of one-dimensional Schrödinger equations by showing that they were supersymmetric partner potentials of the standard quantum harmonic oscillator. In this work we extend these results to find the complete set of real partner potentials of the harmonic oscillator, showing that these depend upon two continuous parameters. Their spectra are identical to that of the harmonic oscillator, except that the ground state energy becomes a tunable parameter. We finally use these potentials to analyse the physical problem of Bose-Einstein condensation in an atomic gas trapped in a dimple potential.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2009

Factorization solution of Cariñena's quantum nonlinear oscillator

In a recent paper Cariñena et al analyzed a non-polynomial one-dimensional quantum potential representing an oscillator which they argued was intermediate between the harmonic and isotonic oscillators. In particular they proved that it is Schrödinger soluble, and explicitly obtained the wavefunctions and energies of the bound states. In this paper we show that these results can be obtained much more simply by noting that this potential is a supersymmetric partner potential of the harmonic oscillator. We then use this observation to generate an infinite set of potentials which can be exactly solved in a similar manner.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2002

Absence of singular superconducting fluctuation corrections to thermal conductivity

We evaluate the superconducting fluctuation corrections to thermal conductivity in the normal state which diverge as T approaches T_c. We find zero total contribution for one, two and three-dimensional superconductors for arbitrary impurity concentration. The method used is diagrammatic many-body theory, and all contributions -- Aslamazov-Larkin (AL), Maki-Thompson (MT), and density-of-states (DOS) -- are considered. The AL contribution is convergent, whilst the divergences of the DOS and MT diagrams exactly cancel.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2000

Width and Magnetic Field Dependence of Transition Temperature in Ultranarrow Superconducting Wires

We calculate the transition temperature in ultranarrow superconducting wires as a function of wire width, resistance and applied magnetic field. We compare the results of first-order perturbation theory and the non-perturbative resummation technique developed by Oreg and Finkel'stein. The latter technique is found to be superior as it is valid even in the strong disorder limit. In both cases the predicted additional suppression of the transition temperature due to the reduced dimensionality is strongly dependent upon the boundary conditions used. When we use the correct (zero-gradient) boundary conditions, we find that theory and experiment are consistent, although more experimental data is required to verify this systematically. We calculate the magnetic field dependence of the transition temperature for different wire widths and resistances in the hope that this will be measured in future experiments. The predicted results have a rich structure - in particular we find a dimensional crossover which can be tuned by varying either the width of the wire or its resistance per square.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2000

A Consistent Treatment of Strong Coupling in Disordered Superconducting Films

We develop a consistent treatment of disorder effects in strong coupling superconductors. We use two different approaches, starting either from above or below the transition temperature, and show their equivalence. The normal state approach is a natural extension of a recently developed non-perturbative resummation technique. For the superconducting state we extend the standard Eliashberg theory to include disorder effects. We obtain a compact set of equations which are physically transparent and easy to use. They correctly reproduce the usual strong coupling results and disordered perturbation theory results in the appropriate limits. We numerically solve these equations to obtain transition temperature as a function of disorder for different phonon couplings.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2000

Effect of Magnetic Impurities on Suppression of the Transition Temperature in Disordered Superconductors

We calculate the first-order perturbative correction to the transition temperature $T_c$ in a superconductor with both non-magnetic and magnetic impurities. We do this by first evaluating the correction to the effective potential, $Ω(Δ)$, and then obtain the first-order correction to the order parameter, $Δ$, by finding the minimum of $Ω(Δ)$. Setting $Δ=0$ finally allows $T_c$ to be evaluated. $T_c$ is now a function of both the resistance per square, $R_\square$, a measure of the non-magnetic disorder, and the spin-flip scattering rate, $1/τ_s$, a measure of the magnetic disorder. We find that the effective pair-breaking rate per magnetic impurity is virtually independent of the resistance per square of the film, in agreement with an experiment of Chervenak and Valles. This conclusion is supported by both the perturbative calculation, and by a non-perturbative re-summation technique.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv1999

The Upper Critical Field in Disordered Two-Dimensional Superconductors

We present calculations of the upper critical field in superconducting films as a function of increasing disorder (as measured by the normal state resistance per square). In contradiction to previous work, we find that there is no anomalous low-temperature positive curvature in the upper critical field as disorder is increased. We show that the previous prediction of this effect is due to an unjustified analytical approximation of sums occuring in the perturbative calculation. Our treatment includes both a careful analysis of first-order perturbation theory, and a non-perturbative resummation technique. No anomalous curvature is found in either case. We present our results in graphical form.

cond-mat.supr-con↗