Talk:BCS theory
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[edit] Intuitive picture is wrong (?)
The BCS theory page has an intuitive explanation of how Cooper pairs are formed (see below). I think this picture is not suitable, as it is wrong.
Cooper pairs are formed between electrons with opposite spin, and opposite k-vector. This means they have to be travelling in opposite directions! The energy of such a system is lowered compared to the two separate systems, because the center of mass is at rest.
[edit] Text from article
Roughly speaking the picture is the following:
An electron moving through a conductor will attract nearby positive charges in the lattice. This deformation of the lattice causes another electron, with opposite "spin", to move into the region of higher positive charge density. The two electrons are then held together with a certain binding energy. If this binding energy is higher than the energy provided by kicks from oscillating atoms in the conductor (which is true at low temperatures), then the electron pair will stick together and resist all kicks, thus not experiencing resistance.
