On some recent results concerning the superconducting transition temperature

The Eliashberg gap equations relate the transition temperature T_c of an isotropic superconductor to its electron-phonon spectral function α²F(ω) and Coulomb pseudopotential parameter $\text{μ}{}^1$. Recently the Eliashberg theory has been used to derive some supposedly rigorous results bearing on the problem of attaining higher superconducting transition temperatures: Bergmann and Rainer derived an expression for the functional derivative $\text{δT}{}_{\mathrm{c}}\text{δα}{}^2\text{F(ω)}$; Allen and Dynes showed that in the asymptotic limit of very large $\text{λ(λ?10)k}{}_{\mathrm{B}}\text{T}{}_{\mathrm{c}}\text{=f(μ}{}^1\text{)(λ〈ω}{}^2\text{〉)}{}^{\mathrm{<mtext>1</mtext><mtext>2</mtext>}}$ and Leavens proved that for any isotropic superconductor k_BT_c ?0.2309A, where A is the area under its electron-phonon spectral function. In this letter we show that the result of Allen and Dynes is not compatible with the other results and is, in fact, incorrect.