Slippery wave functions
From MaRDI portal
Abstract: Superfluids and superconductors are ordinary matter that show a very surprising behavior at low temperatures. As their temperature is reduced, materials of both kinds can abruptly fall into a state in which they will support a persistent, essentially immortal, flow of particles. Unlike anything in classical physics, these flows engender neither friction nor resistance. A major accomplishment of Twentieth Century physics was the development of an understanding of this very surprising behavior via the construction of partially microscopic and partially macroscopic quantum theories of superfluid helium and superconducting metals. Such theories come in two parts: a theory of the motion of particle-like excitations, called quasiparticles, and of the persistent flows itself via a huge coherent excitation, called a condensate. Two people, above all others, were responsible for the construction of the quasiparticle side of the theories of these very special low-temperature behaviors: Lev Landau and John Bardeen. Curiously enough they both partially ignored and partially downplayed the importance of the condensate. In both cases, this neglect of the actual superfluid or superconducting flow interfered with their ability to understand the implications of the theory they had created. They then had difficulty assessing the important advances that occurred immediately after their own great work. Some speculations are offered about the source of this unevenness in the judgments of these two leading scientists.
This article treats a history of a major accomplishment in Twentieth Century physics-superfluidity and superconductivity. Among others, emphasis is put especially on the works by the two Nobel physics prize laureates, Lev Landau and John Bardeen. On the one hand, the article treats the great achievements by both physicists from the viewpoint of a quasiparticle. On the other hand, it treats the fact that they downplayed the viewpoint of a condensate and had difficulty assessing the important advances after their great works. The author of the article says that the wave functions are too slippery to grasp.
Recommendations
- Richard Feynman and the history of superconductivity
- Failed theories of superconductivity
- John Bardeen and the theory of superconductivity: A late revision of a homework assignment for J. M. Luttinger
- On Superconductivity and Superfluidity
- Quasi-particles associated with Lagrangian manifolds and (in the ergodic case) with constant energy manifolds corresponding to semiclassical self-consistent fields. V
Cites work
- A Collective Description of Electron Interactions: III. Coulomb Interactions in a Degenerate Electron Gas
- Bose-Einstein Condensation and Liquid Helium
- Bound Electron Pairs in a Degenerate Fermi Gas
- Coherent and incoherent states of the radiation field
- Electron-Phonon Interaction in Metals
- Genesis of d'Alembert's paradox and analytical elaboration of the drag problem
- scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3127461 (Why is no real title available?)
- scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3141974 (Why is no real title available?)
- scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3019842 (Why is no real title available?)
- scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3031655 (Why is no real title available?)
- scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3064005 (Why is no real title available?)
- scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3086715 (Why is no real title available?)
- More is the same; phase transitions and mean field theories
- Possible new effects in superconductive tunnelling
- Relating theories via renormalization
- Superconductive Tunneling
- Sur la théorie des liquides quantiques. Application a l'hélium liquide
- The electromagnetic equations of the supraconductor
- The Theory of Quantized Fields. II
- Theory of Superconductivity
- Theory of the Superfluidity of Helium II
- Thermodynamics of the thermomechanical effect of liquid He II
- Tunneling Into Superconductors
Cited in
(7)- Equilibrium and non-equilibrium properties of superfluids and superconductors
- Richard Feynman and the history of superconductivity
- The Meissner effect in the ground state of free charged bosons in a constant magnetic field
- The total momentum of quantum fluids
- The Higgs mechanism and superconductivity: A case study of formal analogies
- Landau superfluids as nonequilibrium stationary states
- John Bardeen and the theory of superconductivity: A late revision of a homework assignment for J. M. Luttinger
This page was built for publication: Slippery wave functions
Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q385556)
