Tag Archives: Cooper pairs
65 years of the BCS theory
Thanks to an arithmetic mistake, I thought 2022 was the 75th anniversary of the invention (or discovery?) of the BCS theory of superconductivity. It’s really the 65th anniversary, but since I’d worked myself up to write about it, I’m going … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm, Science
Tagged BCS theory, Bi-2212, conventional superconductors, Cooper pairs, superconductivity
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Physicists observe long-expected helium superfluid phase
Physicists have reported that they have finally observed helium 3 existing in a long-predicted type of superfluid, called the ß phase. This is an important discovery, if it’s borne out, for reasons that partly have to do with its isotope, helium 4. … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm
Tagged Anthony Leggett, BCS theory, Cooper pairs, helium 3 A phase, helium 3 P phase, helium 3 ß phase, helium 3 superfluidity, helium 4, helium-3, nematic aerogel, neutron stars, superconductivity, symmetry-breaking, Vladimir Dmitriev
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The awesome limits of superconductors
On June 24, a press release from CERN said that scientists and engineers working on upgrading the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) had “built and operated … the most powerful electrical transmission line … to date”. The transmission line consisted of … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm
Tagged Abrikosov vortex lattice, Abrikosov vortices, BCS theory, Bose-Einstein condensate, CERN, Cooper pairs, copper, electrical conductivity, electrical resistivity, electrons, flux-flow resistance, Joule heating, Large Hadron Collider, Lisa Randall, magnesium diboride, magnetic flux, Meissner effect, niobium, Pauli's exclusion principle, Praveen Chaddah, protons, silver, superconductors, superfluid helium, titanium, type I superconductors, type II superconductors, vortex pinning
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Superconductivity: From Feshbach to Fermi
(This post is continued from this one.) After a bit of searching on Wikipedia, I found that the fundamental philosophical underpinnings of superconductivity were to be found in a statistical concept called the Feshbach resonance. If I had to teach … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged 1-2-3 superconductors, absolute zero, BCS theory, Bose-Einstein condensates, Cooper pairs, crystal lattice, Fermi energy, Fermi-Dirac statistics, Feshbach resonance, Meissner effect, Pauli's exclusion principle, phonons, superconductivity
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Getting started on superconductivity
After the hoopla surrounding and attention on particle physics subsided, I realized that I’d been riding a speeding wagon all the time. All I’d done is used the lead-up to (the search for the Higgs boson) and the climax itself … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged condensed matter physics, Cooper pairs, Electromagnetism, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Large Hadron Collider, Leon Cooper, Lorentz force, superconductivity
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