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GR9677 #95
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Advanced Topics$\Rightarrow$}Solid State Physics

The specific heat of a superconductor jumps at the critical temperature (c.f. with its resistivity jump).

Ordinarily, the specific heat of a metal is $c=aT+bT^3$. When it is superconducting, the first term, the electronic-contribution, is replaced by $\approx e^{-cT}$. The revised plot of the specific heat has a jump from an exponentially increasing specific heat to a much lower value somewhere in the range for positive T.

Reference: Ibach and Luth p 270ff

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lathena
2009-10-04 15:46:48
So then the answer is (E), correct?
 cathaychris2011-10-14 01:24:50 Yes.
sharpstones
2007-04-06 15:01:10
It's good to know that a phase transition is characterized by a discontinuous jump in a physical quantity. The switchover from normal metal to superconducting state is a phase transition and is characterized by a discontinuous jump in the Heat Capacity.
 kammyuce2011-11-08 13:20:57 yes. to add more to it...1st order phase transitions has their physical quantities (order parameter and dependent quantities) following a discontinuous or kinked curve. There are alo 2nd order transitions which have a smooth variation. Nonetheless, superconductivity (Type I) is a 1st order transtition.

LaTeX syntax supported through dollar sign wrappers $, ex.,$\alpha^2_0$produces $\alpha^2_0$. type this... to get...$\int_0^\infty$$\int_0^\infty$$\partial$$\partial$$\Rightarrow$$\Rightarrow$$\ddot{x},\dot{x}$$\ddot{x},\dot{x}$$\sqrt{z}$$\sqrt{z}$$\langle my \rangle$$\langle my \rangle$$\left( abacadabra \right)_{me}$$\left( abacadabra \right)_{me}$$\vec{E}$$\vec{E}$$\frac{a}{b}\$ $\frac{a}{b}$