Electron-Phonon Interaction and Superconductivity in Metallic Hydrogen

Abstract

The energy bands of face-centered-cubic hydrogen at a rs value of 1.64 a.u. were calculated. This corresponds to a density of 3.65 × 102 3 hydrogen atoms/cm3 and would require pressures of the order of a megabar to achieve. We have calculated the electron-phonon matrix element using the formalism of Gaspari and Gyorffy and parameters derived from our calculations. Using various theoretical estimates of the phonon properties of metallic hydrogen we have calculated the electron-phonon coupling constant or mass enhancement factor, λ, and the superconducting transition temperature. Those calculations indicate that this system would be a superconductor with a transition temperature in excess of 200 K.