Abstract
It is shown that an electron gas exhibits the Meissner-Ochsenfeld effect if a special type of electron-electron interaction, e2s1·s2⁄r, is assumed and if the motion of an electron is considered to obey Dirac’s relativistic equation. (s1 and s2 are the spin operators belonging respectively to each interacting electron.) The perturbation method of statistical mechanics, when applied to this system, leads to the London equation though the coefficient is different from London’s original one. The theory talks in principle about the feature at the absolute zero of temperature in the sense that the electron-phonon interaction is not taken into account. The penetration depth of the field calculated according to the present model is quantitatively in good agreement with experiment. The known type of electron-electron interaction due to Breit, does not lead to superconductivity even in the relativistic treatment. The proposed interaction is discussed in connection with some experimental facts, i.e. the existance of an impurity effect for the penetration depth and the smaller Knight shift in the superconducting than the normal state.
