Theory of Fluctuations in Superconductors (International Series of Monographs on Physics (127))

This book presents a complete encyclopedia of superconducting fluctuations, summarising the last thirty-five years of work in the field. The first part of the book is devoted to an extended discussion of the Ginzburg-Landau phenomenology of fluctuations in its thermodynamical and time-dependent versions and its various applications. The second part deals with microscopic justification of the Ginzburg-Landau approach and presents the diagrammatic theory of fluctuations. The third part is devoted to a less-detailed review of the manifestation of fluctuations in observables: diamagnetism, magnetoconductivity, various tunneling characteristics, thermoelectricity, and NMR relaxation. The final chapters turn to the manifestation of fluctuations in unconventional superconducting systems: nanodrops, nanorings, Berezinsky-Kosterlitz-Thouless state, quantum phase transition between superconductor and insulator, and thermal and quantum fluctuations in weak superconducting systems. The book ends with a brief discussion on theories of high temperature superconductivity, where fluctuations appear as the possible protagonist of this exciting phenomenon. ## Abstract This book presents itself as both an encyclopedia and a textbook of fluctuation phenomena in superconductors. The first half presents the phenomenological methods of the Ginzburg-Landau theory and microscopical methods of the quantum field theory in the description of fluctuations. The second half provides a wide panorama of the superconductive fluctuations manifestated in different observables: their role in fields such as high temperature superconductivity, nano-superconductivity, the physics of Josephson junctions and granular superconductors, and strongly disordered superconductors. Other textbooks on this subject postulate that the BCS theory of superconductivity is an exact one. This book dispels this, indicating the limits of the applicability of the mean field theory and demonstrating the existence of a wide circle of interesting phenomena beyond its confines. Describes The Theory Of Superconducting Fluctuations, Which Connects Two Major Topics In Statistical Physics - The Theory Of Phase Transitions And The Theory Of Superconductivity. This Book Deals With Microscopic Justification Of The Ginzburg-landau Approach And Presents The Diagrammatic Theory Of Fluctuations. Anatoly Larkin, Andrei Varlamov. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. This book describes the theory of superconducting fluctuations, which connects two major topics in statistical physics - the theory of phase transitions and the theory of superconductivity. It presents a complete encyclopedia of superconducting fluctuations, summarising the last thirty-five years of work in the field.