Superconductivity and Superfluidity

Superconductivity and superfluidity have a common origin due to the discovery of perfect conduction in mercury and superfluidity in helium. The effects show on a large spatial scale so that we can describe them as macroscopic phenomena. In this chapter, superconductivity and superfluidity are developed in a continuum framework within the theory of mixtures. In superconductivity, the fluid is viewed as consisting of two constituents: normal electrons (satisfying Ohm’s law) and superconducting electrons. In superfluidity, a normal fluid and a superfluid are viewed as a mixture of chemically reacting fluids. The conjecture that second sound is generated by the normal heat flux is made formal by investigating the propagation of discontinuity waves through a Maxwell-Cattaneo objective equation.