Thermodynamic properties of superconducting niobium

The thermodynamic properties of superconducting Nb are calculated numerically from the solution of the Eliashberg equations on the imaginary axis for several possible electron-phonon spectral densities ²()F(). Comparison with experiment is made in order to see which spectrum gives the best agreement, and functional derivatives with respect to ²()F() are used to estimate how this agreement might be improved by small changes in ²()F(). Possible gap anisotropy effects are also considered with the help of a simple model anisotropy for the interaction.Research supported by Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada.