Paper detail

What is the speed of the supercurrent in superconductors?

Within the conventional theory of superconductivity superfluid carriers respond to an applied magnetic field and acquire a speed according to their effective (band) mass. On the other hand it can be shown theoretically and is confirmed experimentally that the mechanical momentum of the supercurrent carriers is given by the product of the supercurrent speed and the $bare$ electron mass. By combining these two well-established facts we show that the conventional BCS-London theory of superconductivity applied to Bloch electrons is $internally$ $inconsistent$. Furthermore, we argue that BCS-London theory with Bloch electrons does not describe the phase rigidity and macroscopic quantum behavior exhibited by superconductors. Experimentally the speed of the supercurrent in superconductors has never been measured and has been argued to be non-measurable, however we point out that it is in principle measurable by a Compton scattering experiment. We predict that such experiments will show that superfluid carriers respond to an applied magnetic field according to their bare mass, in other words, that they respond as $free$ $electrons$, undressed from the electron-ion interaction, rather than as Bloch electrons. This is inconsistent with the conventional theory of superconductivity and consistent with the alternative theory of hole superconductivity. Furthermore we point out that in principle Compton scattering experiments can also detect the presence of a spin current in the ground state of superconductors predicted by the theory of hole superconductivity.