COOPER PAIRS AS BOSONS

Abstract

Although BCS pairs of fermions are known to obey neither Bose–Einstein (BE) commutation relations nor BE statistics, we show how Cooper pairs (CPs), whether the simple original ones or the CPs recently generalized in a many-body Bethe–Salpeter approach, being clearly distinct from BCS pairs at least obey BE statistics. Hence, contrary to widespread popular belief, CPs can undergo BE condensation to account for superconductivity if charged, as well as for neutral-atom fermion superfluidity where CPs, but uncharged, are also expected to form.