Novel results about magnetic fluctuation effects near the normal-to-superconducting phase transition in a zero magnetic field

A systematic treatment of the magnetic fluctuations effect on the properties of the normal-to-superconducting phase transition in a zero external magnetic field is given within the self-consistent approximation and the quasi-macroscopic Ginzburg-Landau model. New results for thin superconducting films are presented. Thermodynamic quantities having a direct experimental interest as the order parameter jump, latent heat, and specific heat are considered and numerically evaluated for bulk Al and thin Al films. The possibility for an experimental verification of the theoretical predictions is discussed.