Eur. Phys. J. B 10, 131-143 (1999)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s100510050836

Dynamics and effective actions of BCS superconductors

¹ Instituut-Lorentz, Leiden University, PO Box 9506, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
² Physics Department, Chalmers University of Technology, 41296, Göteborg, Sweden
³ I.E.Tamm Department of Theoretical Physics, P.N. Lebedev Physics Institute, Leninskii pr. 53, 117924 Moscow, Russia
⁴ Institut für Theoretische Festkörperphysik, Universität Karlsruhe, 76128 Karlsruhe, Germany
⁵ Theoretische Physik, ETH-Hönggerberg, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland

Corresponding author: ^a zaikin@tfp.physik.uni-karlsruhe.de

Received: 23 November 1998
Published online: 15 July 1999

Abstract

We derive the effective dynamical theory for BCS superconductors, based on the effective action formalism. Both the metallic regime and the superconducting regime are studied in the clean and dirty limit. The full electrodynamics of the problem is formulated in a manifestly gauge-invariant and transparent way. Furthermore, we consider the effect of particle-hole asymmetry in the band structure, and discuss its consequences for vortex dynamics and the topological term in the effective action. The effective action is the starting point for treating (quantum-) dynamical problems involving BCS superconductors.