A physics novel for room-temperature superconductors
One day, suddenly, an artificial intelligences (AI) has appeared and played Go to beat overwhelmingly Lee Se-dol. Though Lee won one game out of five, it was a shocking event in which some non-human intelligence surpassed humans. The thinking that humans will have to live as inferior beings and not the brightest creatures on Earth in the distant future, or not so far in the future, is reluctant. However, AIs are still works of human beings. Of course, they are not just works of human beings, but are the works of numerous scientists and engineers. Scientists and engineers here are not just those who are currently in business nor have worked for some time. AIs are the realizations of science and technology that has been studied and developed from the distant past to the present. If we think about it, AIs don't just exist in our real world. They exist only on so-called networks created by humans. They are like entertainers we can meet everyday on TV, but we need to turn on the TV. Of course, we can visit and meet them in person. Most of the time, however, the entertainers are only on TV or networks. Meanwhile, these intelligences are approaching us in human forms, robots. Yet the robot is as cute as a toddler, and we don't need to be alert. But if this robot becomes an adult... If it is stronger and more intelligent than us... We won't be able to control it. Uncertainty in human life will be very high. Horrible.
The introduction was long. Now I want to tell you why I wrote this book. The AI is one of the implementations of the information of science and technology that has been accumulated from the distant past. Limited to science alone, The AI is a world of electric and magnetic signals, that usually wander in solid materials. It is a world of solid state physics.
It is no exaggeration to state that modern solid state physics has started with the duality of light, a wave and a particle. Quantum mechanics was born from the duality of light, and is in the core of modern physics. Einstein, famous for the theory of relativity, said, "God does not play dice." However, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921 for his theory of the photoelectric effect that contributed greatly to the birth of quantum mechanics. Since then, many quantum mechanical discoveries have been made, and solid-state physics has developed remarkably. There is no phenomenon that cannot be explained by quantum mechanics, from the flow of electricity, magnetic phenomena, etc. down to the behavior of subatomic particles. It looks like that. Of course, classical mechanics explained macroscopic phenomena well, but the micro-world could not be accurately explained without quantum mechanics. There are things, however, that even quantum mechanics has not yet solved, as there is no perfect theory in the world. One of them is superconductivity. The main reason for writing this book is to clarify the mechanism of superconductivity that quantum mechanics cannot solve.
Superconductivity in solids is a physical phenomenon in which electrical resistance of a conductor goes to zero at very low temperatures that we do not experience in everyday life. It also includes the magnetic phenomenon that the conductor completely repels magnetic fields. In 1957, John Bardeen, Leon Cooper, and John R. Schrieffer in the United States interpreted the superconducting phenomena in terms of quantum mechanics with their BCS theory, which borrowed the first letters of their family names. For this, they were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1972. This theory explained the superconductivity of metals at very low temperatures (below 30 K, –243oC), but it did not go well along with oxide based high temperature superconductors. In the BCS theory, paired electrons called Cooper pairs are the main charge carriers in superconductors. However, it is impossible to explain high temperature superconductivity with Cooper pairs. There appears to be no need to insist on the BCS theory that is different from the theory of normal electrical conductivity and that does not fit with high temperature superconductivity. However, no solid theory has yet appeared to replace this theory and to cover high temperature superconductivity and electrical conductivity at room temperature simultaneously.
Both superconductivity and electrical conductivity in solids are the same flow of electricity. It is a "flow" of electrical energy. If an electric current is a flow of energy, charged particles called electrons does not need to deliver the energy directly. No one has ever seen these charged particles flowing through conductors. There seems to be no way to observe them. There are no particles that carry the elastic energy of solids. The relative positions of the constituent atoms or molecules propagate in the form of waves. Electricity also does not involve particles that carry its energy. In this regard, we accessed electricity and searched for the nature of superconductivity. To do this, a new atomic model was set up and electromagnetism was newly defined. We wanted to create a new paradigm to explain electromagnetic phenomena in solids. We did thought experiments for new solid-state physics and recorded the experimental results in this book. It won't be easily understood for the readers out there. It appears to an absurd but is a fun challenge for new physics. I appreciate all the people who helped me publishing this book.
