Cooper pairings, melting transition

The problematic nature of the melting transition can be illustrated by comparison with other well-known first-order phase transitions, for instance the normal metal-(low T ) superconductor transition. The normal metal-superconductor and melting transitions have similar symptomatic definitions, the former being a loss of resistance to current flow, and the latter being a loss of resistance to shear. However, superconductivity can also be neatly described as a phonon-mediated (Cooper) pairing of electrons and condensation of Cooper pairs into a coherent ground state wave function. This mechanistic description of the normal metal-super-conductor transition has required considerable theoretical effort for its development, but nevertheless boils down to a simple statement, indicat-... 

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