We have experimentally studied the magnetic shielding properties of a cylindrical shell of BiPbSrCaCuO subjected to low frequency AC axial magnetic fields. The magnetic response has been investigated as a function of the dimensions of the tube, the magnitude of the applied field and the frequency. These results are explained quantitatively by employing the method of Brandt (1998 Phys. Rev. B 58 6506) with a Jc(B) law appropriate for a polycrystalline material. Specifically, we observe that the applied field can sweep into the central region either through the thickness of the shield or through the opening ends, the latter mechanism being suppressed for long tubes. For the first time, we systematically detail the spatial variation of the shielding factor (the ratio of the applied field over the internal magnetic field) along the axis of a high-temperature superconducting tube. The shielding factor is shown to be constant in a region around the centre of the tube, and to decrease as an exponential in the vicinity of the ends. This spatial dependence comes from the competition between two mechanisms of field penetration. The frequency dependence of the shielding factor is also discussed and shown to follow a power law arising from the finite creep exponent n.

We generalize the concept of conserving, Φ-derivable, approximations to relativistic field theories. Treating the interaction field as a dynamical degree of freedom, we derive the thermodynamic potential in terms of fully dressed propagators, an approach which allows us to resolve the entropy of a relativistic plasma into contributions from its interacting elementary excitations. We illustrate the derivation for a hot relativistic system governed by electromagnetic interactions. * It is a pleasure to dedicate this paper to Leo Kadanoff on his sixtieth birthday. Immediately after Leo and I received our Ph.D.'s from Harvard in 1960, we began working together at the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Copenhagen (now the Niels Bohr Institute) on the problem of how to construct self-consistent approximations to two-particle propagators that preserved the basic conservation laws. Our solution to the problem was written up in the paper Conservation laws and correlation functions 1 , and the concept generalized to deriving self-consistent approximations from a functional, Φ, of the single particle Green's function in Ref. 2 . I hope that Leo enjoys revisiting these early ideas, which may prove useful in understanding modern problems of the thermodynamics and transport properties of systems with long-ranged gauge fields. -Gordon Baym

We discuss random matrix models for the spontaneous breaking of both chiral and color symmetries at zero chemical potential and finite temperature. Exploring different Lorentz and gauge symmetric color structures of the random matrix interactions, we find that spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking is always thermodynamically preferred over diquark condensation. Stable diquark condensates appear only as SU(2) rotated chiral condensates, which do not represent an independent thermodynamic phase. Our analysis is based on general symmetry arguments and hence suggests that no stable and independent diquark phase can form in QCD with two flavors at zero quark chemical potential.

We apply a random matrix model to the study of the phase diagram of QCD with two colors, two flavors, and a small quark mass. Although the effects of temperature are only included schematically, this model reproduces most of the ground state predictions of chiral perturbation theory and also gives a qualitative picture of the phase diagram at all temperatures. It leads, however, to an unphysical behavior of the chiral order parameter and the baryon density in vacuum and does not support diquark condensation at arbitrarily high densities. A better treatment of temperature dependence leads to correct vacuum and small temperature properties. We compare our results at both high and low densities with the results of microscopic calculations using the Nambu-JonaLasinio model and discuss the effects of large momentum scales on the variations of condensation fields with chemical potential.

We consider a random matrix model which describes the competition between chiral symmetry breaking and the formation of quark Cooper pairs in QCD at finite density. We study the evolution of the phase structure in temperature and chemical potential with variations of the strength of the interaction in the quark-quark channel and demonstrate that the phase diagram can realize a total of six different topologies. A vector interaction representing single-gluon exchange reproduces a topology commonly encountered in previous QCD models, in which a low-density chiral broken phase is separated from a high-density diquark phase by a first-order line. The other five topologies either do not possess a diquark phase or display a new phase and new critical points. Since these five cases require large variations of the coupling constants away from the values expected for a vector interaction, we conclude that the phase diagram of finite density QCD has the topology suggested by single-gluon exchange and that this topology is robust. * An animated gif movie showing the evolution of the phase diagram with the chiral and diquark coupling parameters can be viewed at