Paper 4, Section II, C

Electrodynamics
Part II, 2009

In a superconductor, the charge carriers have a charge qq, mass mm and number density nn. Describe how to construct the superconducting current in terms of the vector potential A and the wavefunction of the charge carriers.

Show that the current is gauge invariant.

Derive the Helmholtz equation

2B=B/2\nabla^{2} \mathbf{B}=\mathbf{B} / \ell^{2}

for a time-independent magnetic field and evaluate the length scale \ell in terms of n,qn, q and mm.

Why does this imply that magnetic flux cannot exist in a superconductor?