Electromagnetism – Perfect Conductor in a Time-Dependent Magnetic Field

conductorselectromagnetismmagnetic fields

I have read about how a perfect conductor responses to a time-dependent magnetic field. It was stated that the "equation of motion" of such a perfect conductor is given by
$$\frac{dj(r, t)}{dt}=ne^2E(r,t),$$
as well as this equation follows from $j(r,t)=nev(r,t)$, where $v$ is the drift velocity.
I don't understand why the first equation follows from the second one. Can somebody explain this to me?

Best Answer

This is one of the London equations.

This comes from modeling the electrons as free electrons.

As such the motion of a single electron is

$\vec{F} = e\vec{E}$

$m\frac{d \vec{v}}{dt} = e\vec{E}$

$m\frac{d ne\vec{v}}{dt} = ne^2\vec{E}$

$m\frac{d \vec{J}}{dt} = ne^2\vec{E}$

$ \frac{d\vec{J}}{dt} = \frac{ne^2}{m}\vec{E}$

Behaviour of magnetic fields in perfect conductors

$ \frac{d \nabla × \vec{J}}{dt} = \frac{ne^2}{m}\nabla × \vec{E}$

$ \frac{d \nabla × \vec{J}}{dt} = - \frac{ne^2}{m} \frac{\partial \vec{B}}{\partial t}$

$\nabla × \vec{J} = -\frac{ne^2}{m}\vec{B}$

Finding $\nabla × \vec{J}$:

$\nabla × (\nabla × \vec{B} = \mu_0 \vec{J})$

$\nabla (\nabla \cdot \vec{B}) - \nabla^2 \vec{B} = \mu_0 \nabla × \vec{J}$

$- \nabla^2 \vec{B} = \mu_0 \nabla × \vec{J}$

Sub in:

$\nabla^2 \vec{B} = \frac{\mu_0 n e^2}{m} \vec{B}$

Whose solution is an exponential decay of the magnetic field. Which is why "there is no magnetic field inside a superconductor". This makes sense, as any changing external magnetic field induces an electric field, which generates a current to oppose the flux

There are a few assumptions in this derivation however.