Kohn-Luttinger correction to Tc in a phonon superconductor

Abstract

Weak coupling theory predicts the critical temperature of a phonon superconductor to be Tc=1.13e−3/2ωDe−1/λ, where ωD is the Debye frequency, λ is the dimensionless electron-phonon coupling constant, and the factor e−3/2 comes from fermionic self-energy and frequency dependence of the interaction. Other corrections are small either in ωD/EF, by Migdal's theorem, or in λ. However, this formula assumes that ωD≪EF, where EF is the Fermi energy. We obtain Tc in the dilute regime, when the Fermi energy is smaller than ωD. We argue that in this situation Migdal's theorem is no longer valid, and Kohn-Luttinger-type corrections to the pairing interaction must be included to obtain the correct prefactor for Tc.

Source-reported materials — not catalogue approval

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