NUMBER PARITY EFFECTS IN A MESOSCOPIC SUPERCONDUCTING SAMPLE

Considering the ground state of a superconducting sample that contains a fixed odd number of electrons, one expects the existence of an unpa ired electron. We investigate its influence to various properties of t he superconductor. For such an odd-parity sample, we find finite optic al conductivity, acoustic attenuation rate, and spin excitation for om ega < 2 Delta (at sub-gap frequencies) at T = OK. For T > OK, the acou stic attenuation rate, Knight shift, and nuclear spin relaxation rate varies with T nonmonotonically.