Superconductivity
Superconductivity is infinitely more than a physics phenomena of the first order. It may be one of the fundamental linking mechanisms in an unlimited and connected universe. The physics is referenced, for example, in the Scientific References, but for those looking for a quick and dirty explanation, the following will provide an inkling of the immensity of the subject. Just keep in mind that any U. S. patent application which includes anywhere in its text the word “superconductivity” is automatically sent to the Department of Defense for review. That should be convincing evidence that this subject is worth investigating.
Most, but not all, conductors of electrical current, when cooled sufficiently in the direction of absolute zero (0 oK, -273.15 oC), become superconductors. The superconducting state itself is one in which there is zero electrical resistance and perfect diamagnetism. [1] This means that current flowing through a superconducting circuit does not experience i2R heating (current squared times the resistance), and the current can flow indefinitely. Also, diamagnetism is the property of a substance to become magnetized in a direction at right angles to an applied magnetic field (Michael Faraday discovered the effect in 1846 that when such substances were brought near the pole of a strong magnet, they were repelled). The diamagnetism of the superconducting state is extraordinary in that it expels from its interior any external magnetic field(s) — up to a limiting critical magnetic field strength.
The last factor is even more incredible when one realizes that when a conductor undergoes the transition to the superconducting state, the superconductor expels a pre-existing field — a phenomenon known as the Meisner Effect. (The superconductor’s magnetic field is also called a Meisner Field, and is thus distinguished from the nature of other magnetic fields.) External magnetic fields do penetrate the superconducting Meisner Field to some degree, the penetration depth being temperature dependent (minimum penetration at 0 oK, and infinite at Tc, defined as the Critical Temperature for the superconductor in question).
Inasmuch as it takes energy to expel a magnetic field from a superconductor, a magnet can under the right circumstances float freely above a superconductor at the point where the upward force generated by the field-expulsion energy balances the downward gravitational force. This dramatic phenomenon of magnetic Levitation becomes even more fascinating when one recognizes the Earth is effectively a magnet, and that a superconductor (being of somewhat less mass) could thus reverse the roles and float freely above the Earth.
The currently reigning theory with respect to superconductivity is known as the BCS theory (named after John Bardeen, Leon N. Cooper, and J. Robert Schrieffer). The BCS theory describes a pairing of conduction electrons by some interelectron attraction and a condensation of these pairs, “Cooper pairs”, to form a macroscopic quantum state. The superconductor’s electrical resistance is zero because the Cooper pair condensate moves as a coherent quantum mechanical entity, which atomic lattice vibrations and impurities cannot disrupt by scattering individual Cooper pairs in the same manner they scatter single conduction electrons — the latter being the reason electrical circuits have resistance.
The critical elements in reaching the superconducting state are for conduction electrons to somehow form Cooper pairs, which then in turn automatically condense into a coherent flow, the “coherent” aspect being similar to that of a laser, i.e. everybody in step!
How the Cooper pairs are formed is obviously a critical factor in superconductivity. One theory is an electron passing by the crystal lattice of atoms in the conductor distorts the lattice in such a way the next electron is attracted to the lattice distortion. Or instead of the electron-pairing being mediated by lattice vibrations, the interaction of the conduction electrons may be due to charge or electron spin fluctuations in some electronic subsystem.
Note the emphasis on spin and fluctuations. From the discussions on Casimir Effect and Spin, we derive the concept of an electron consisting of an infinitely conducting shell, one with a minute magnetic field [i.e. a superconductor with Meisner Field]. Spin adds the critical ingredient of maintenance of the magnetic/Meisner field, while fluctuations (at the level of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle) connect via Hyperdimensional Physics all of the electrons in the superconducting state. But it gets better.
Two superconductors separated by a very narrow insulating barrier form what is known as a Josephson Junction. The Josephson mechanism is a general phenomena and applies beyond the special case of superconductors. There is, for example, a correlation among oscillating electric dipoles, the microscopic components of living systems. In effect, a pair of neighboring biological cells could represent the same model, as in superconductivity.
Researchers have in fact found evidence of Josephson-like phenomena occurring in living systems. Other effects suggested a Meisner effect — and importantly, something which disappeared all together in a solution which was completely sterile biologically. This has led to the conjecture that room temperature superconductive effects exist in association with living cells. Further, the realization of nearby cells acting as a Josephson junction, yielded the conclusion that intracellular coherence would, through the Josephson effect, give rise to an intercellular coherence. Back to the laser; every cell in step!
An important aspect is that the oscillations of electric dipoles in living systems are able to produce coherent electromagnetic fields whose phase is locked to the phase of the matter field. An external electromagnetic field can become phase correlated only if its energy does not disrupt the coherence. Very strong electromagnetic fields can actually disrupt this correlation, or coherent structure, in a biological system. An external electromagnetic field can interfere with the fundamental processes of cell division, and conversely the cellular process can induce electromagnetic phenomena. [2]
And it’s all about superconductivity!
The implications are staggering, particularly in Consciousness research, where by some unknown means, human consciousnesses are interacting and influencing each other. Some of these interactions are effectively coherent interactions such as in a group meditating or praying with the same goal. The really fundamental question is the degree and manner in which the phenomenon of superconductivity is playing a role in consciousness.
Other research has shown that strong emotions can alter our DNA! No kidding. Thus we are faced with our emotions modifying our DNA, which in turn (along with our conscious mental effort and/or focus), influences the external world. And because such effects — at least according to the implications of The Fifth Element, Zero-Point Energy, and similar research… because such effects are not limited by distance of linear time, we might want to rethink our even thinking (or getting emotional about) making anyone else emotionally upset. Think of everyone else having PMS and a 45 caliber pistol. The only saving grace is that apparently the real power of emotions and/or mental focus are limited by the degree to which an emotional/mental consciousness can tap into the superconducting state.
In this regard, it is worth noting the research of David Radius Hudson. In one of his lectures (this one in 1995, in Dallas, Texas), he paints a coherent picture of a new reality. Excerpts from this lecture are included below:
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“Superconductivity is not electricity. Superconductivity is like a world of it’s own. A material that is a superconductor contains one vibrational frequency within it, a lot like a laser. The light flows perpetually within the system. No where in the system is there any voltage. You can’t hook up a wire here and a wire there to the superconductor and get current to flow in and out of it, because to get current off of the wire, you’ve got to have a voltage, and yet by definition a superconductor won’t allow any voltage. So the material’s a perfect insulator, not just a superconductor. But if you resonant frequency tune the wire so that the electrons vibrate at the same frequency as the superconductor, then the electrons will flow on as light, as electron pairs. They will pair up and flow on, because they’re seeking the path of least resistance which is the superconductor.”
“It’s different than an ordinary conductor and shouldn’t be thought of as electricity, because it’s light. An amazing thing is, if you resonant frequency tune a conductor to the frequency of the superconductor, the energy starts flowing, but it’s flowing as light. Any amount of light can exist in the same space-time. There’s only so much electricity can flow on the conductor, but light can flow on forever.”
“Around the superconductor a Meisner field is formed. The Meisner field has no north or south pole; it’s just a field, but it’s unique in magnetism in that it has no north or south pole. The size of the magnetic field is proportional to the amount of light that is flowing within the superconductor.”
“In the Ark of the Covenant was a pot of the Manna, and the stone through which God spoke to Moses. When Moses was up on Mount Sinai, he was smelting the Manna to the gold glass. Why do I say that? When you understand that in Old Kingdom Egypt these [hairy things over the eyes] were called bushes not eyelashes. These were bushes; check you’re Egyptian literature. The burning bush was the enlightened Third Eye.”
“So, Moses on Mount Sinai, when he looked upon the burning bush… That was just a mistranslation. It was the third eye opening and God communicated to him through this stone. God didn’t write on the stone. If he wrote on the stone, why would he put it in a box, seal it up and then let no one look at it? If God wrote on it, He would put it up on the wall where everybody could read it. When you realize that in Old Kingdom Egypt, on the holiest day in Old Kingdom of Egypt — in the Sign of the Seal [by Graham Hancock] you read this — they carried around an Ark on two poles, and in the Ark was a stone. Coincidentally what was in the Ark of the Covenant? A stone. The pot of Manna and the stone. The gold glass.”
“Around the Ark of the Covenant was the Meisner field. The strange thing about the Meisner field is that other Meisner fields that oscillate at the same frequency, can enter that field and not perturb it. So if you are a high priest, a Melchizedek priest, and you eat this Bread of the Presence of God every week, you are a light being, and you can enter into that field and approach the Ark of the Covenant and not perturb it because you’re in resonance with it. But if you’re an ordinary soldier or a person who thinks bad things, they have to tie a rope around your legs because as you approach it, it may have a flux collapse. Now if you can imagine several hundred thousand amps, and now you have voltage, it’s like a bolt of lightning. It literally is energy of an unbelievable magnitude.”
“As long as there is no voltage, you could touch it, you could feel it, it’s hundreds of thousands of amps, but no tickle, no tingle, because there’s no voltage. As long as you’re in resonance with it, you can approach it, you can touch it, you can hold it, you can feel it; Nothing! But if you’re not in resonance with it, and enter the field, and perturb the resonance, and there’s a flux collapse, and now you’ve got voltage… It’ll kill you.”
“Remember in the Bible that the Ark of the Covenant actually levitated and floated along, and actually carried some of the people who were carrying it. The only thing to do that’s a superconductor.”
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At this point, it should have become readily obvious that Superconductivity is no passing fad (as in encouraging electrons to go with the flow — in pairs and/or at the same time to lighten up). Siriusly, superconductivity, instead of being a phenomenon of great interest to scientists, is fundamental to life, to Consciousness, to the very ascent of our species into the realms of Kether, the Crown of the Tree of Life. It is apparently the basis for the ORME, Star Fire, and the White Powder of Gold. The fact that it explains the structure of the electron and its properties, clarifies different aspects of the Casimir Effect, The Fifth Element, Zero-Point Energy, and Hyperdimensional Physics, and provides the connection link of Mach’s Principle, the EPR Experiment, and the universe… Well, that’s just the icing on the cake! (But really tasty icing!)
For true aficionados <http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/solids> is an excellent, nicely presented (albeit brief) guide into the superconducting world — what might be called light reading (pardon the pun) . Note in particular the material on the Meisner Effect.
Adding a bit more mathematics, another website — one basically designed for high school teachers — is <http://www.physnet.uni-hamburg.de/home/vms/reimer/htc/pt3.html>. . In his introduction, Dull writes, “The theoretical understanding of superconductivity is extremely complicated and involved. It is far beyond the scope of this video booklet to attempt to discuss the quantum mechanics of superconductors. However, in this section fundamental terms and phenomena of superconductors will be discussed.”
And finally, following below is some additional, slightly more technical detail on the truly fascinating subject.
Alternatively, one can ride the Cyperspace wave to other webpages, such as:
Connective Physics Zero-Point Energy Zero-Point Field
Forward to:
Meisner Field Scientific References Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle
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References:
[1] “The New Superconductors,” Frank J. Adrian and Dwaine O. Cowan, Chemical and Engineering News, December 21, 1992.
[2] “Magnetic Flux Quantization and Josephson Behavior in Living Systems.” E. Del Giudice, S. Doglia, M. Milani, C. W. Smith, and G. Vitiello, Physica Scripta 40, 1989.
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Superconductivity in a bit more technical detail
Electrons can move freely through a regular crystalline lattice. The resistance to their flow comes from imperfections in the crystalline lattice, and above absolute zero lattice vibrations are dependent upon temperature (i.e. increasing with temperature). The vibration of the ions can be pictured as waves or particles (the latter which are called phonons). “As a current flows through a metal, the electrons that make up the current frequently collide with the phonons, and this is the origin of most of the material’s resistance.” [1]
If electrons are miniature superconductors with Meisner fields, perhaps it is the lattice vibrations that generate magnetic fields which disrupt the Meisner fields, or just the connection between different Meisner fields of each electron. Impurities might help in some cases in disrupting the lattice vibration’s magnetic field — and in other cases hinder. The fact that electrons in high temperature superconductors travel easily along certain planes may be the result of the lattice vibration’s magnetic field — i.e. the non-isotropic vibrations of the ions.
The temperature at which superconducting shows up with decreasing temperatures is the critical temperature. In mercury, electrical resistance falls by a factor of 1010 at the onset of superconductivity. The noble metals (copper, gold, silver, etc) “never become superconducting.” [This may be due to a lack of impurities. David Radius Hudson’s work with monoatomic gold, on the other hand, may actually constitute nuclear superconductivity.] There is also a critical current density, where too much current means the material loses its superconductivity. The superconducting state can also be destroyed by an external magnetic field (the critical magnetic field being dependent upon the temperature).
A material that responds to a magnetic field by producing an opposing magnetic field is described as diamagnetic. “Superconductors produce a magnetic field that exactly cancels out the external field. The effect is known as perfect diamagnetism.”
A Josephson junction is two lengths of superconducting wire joined by a thin layer of an insulating material. Currents flow through it, but if the current exceeds a critical value, the junction switches to a high-resistance state and the current is switched off. This electronic switch can act within a picosecond — 10-12 seconds). This is what allows a SQUID to be used as an extremely sensitive device for measuring magnetic fields.
The interaction of an electron with the positively charged ions in the crystalline lattice causes a “disturbance”, which affects a second electron as it passes by. In certain situations (whatever that means!) the electrons experience an attractive force between them which is stronger than the normal Coulomb repulsion — and the two electrons form a Cooper pair. “In the superconducting state, the disturbance caused when an electron passes through the lattice results in the production of a phonon. This phonon interacts with a second electron, so that it forms a Cooper pair with the first electron.”
[This also may be a virtual phenomena — where the interaction time (perhaps The Fifth Element Time Delay) — is such that the electrons pair before the Coulomb repulsion has an opportunity to respond in pushing the second electron away.] It is believed that the two electrons do not have to be close to one another (and may be several hundred atoms apart — far enough for the Coulomb repulsion between them to be extremely weak). [A factor which emphasizes the Action at a Distance aspect!] Supposedly, “at Tc the Cooper pairs break up faster than they form and the material is no longer superconducting.” [1]
When unlike charges attract — is there a momentary nulling of the charges?
“In conventional superconductors [2] the attractive binding force [caused by the electron-phonon interaction] between the electrons is produced by rapid interchange of virtual phonons, a process called phonon mediated attraction.” “Electrons of opposite spin and momentum form isotropic or ‘s-wave’ pairs… having no net spin and zero angular momentum (quantum number l = 0). Although quantum mechanical behavior is usually thought of as being restricted to the microscopic scale of an atom or molecule, superconductivity operates at a macroscopic quantum level; pairs condense into a single large-scale quantum state, which has long-range order and can be described as if it was a giant molecule with a single wavefunction.” For high temperature superconductors, some experiments favor anisotropic d-wave symmetry with an angular momentum quantum number l = 2. But it may be that a model which takes into account both s- and d-wave features may provide a better, more natural explanation. “In the superconducting state of Bi2223 (Tc = 110 oK) and Bi2212 (Tc = 85 oK), the reduced energy gaps have been measured as 2D(0)/kTc » 6.5 and 6.1 respectively.”
“Electrical resistance is zero because the Cooper pair condensate moves as a coherent quantum mechanical entity, which lattice vibrations and impurities cannot disrupt by scattering individual Cooper pairs in the same way they scatter single electrons in a conductor.” [3] [How does the coherent quantum mechanical entity avoid disruptions by the lattice vibration and impurities?] The BCS Theory (Bardeen, Cooper, and Schrieffer) is based on the original Cooper pairing (of one electron creating a disturbance and the other being attracted to it). However, the BCS theory may need to be modified to account for the new high-temperature superconductors. “The most likely modification is an unconventional electron-pairing mechanism mediated not by lattice vibrations but by interaction of the conduction electrons with charge or electron spin (magnetic) fluctuations in some electronic subsystem.” [emphasis added] [3] [These “spin (magnetic) fluctuations” could be virtual or due to extreme deaccelerations! The some electronic subsystem may constitute the very nature of the electron — see Casimir Effect and Spin.]
“In the M3C60 superconductors, the three electrons donated to each C60 from the alkali metal atoms go into the triply degenerate lowest unoccupied molecular orbital of C60. These compounds are three-dimensional superconductors.” [3]
“The spin state of a Cooper pair can be either singlet (anti-parallel spins) or triplet (parallel spins). The orbital state can be a spherically symmetric s pair (s wave), analogous to an atomic s orbital, or it can be a p or d pair (p or d waves), analogous to atomic p and d orbitals. The Pauli exclusion principle restricts spin-singlet pairs to s or d orbital states and the spin-triplet state to a p orbital state. The energy gap is the energy required to break up a Cooper pair in the superconductor. It rises with decreasing temperature from zero at Tc to a maximum at 0 K.” [3]
“When a material is in its superconducting state, it excludes from its interior an applied magnetic field up to a critical magnetic field strength. A superconductor also expels a pre-existing field when it undergoes transition to the superconducting state, a phenomena known as the Meisner effect. The magnetic field penetration depth is the distance an applied magnetic field can penetrate a superconductor. The penetration depth is temperature dependent: infinite at Tc and at its minimum at 0 K.” [3]
“The distance over which the quantum state maintains its phase coherence in a superconductor is typically much greater than atomic dimensions. This coherence length can vary along different crystal axes.” “In metallic superconductors, coherence lengths can be thousands of angstroms. In high-Tc superconductors they are smaller (10s of angstroms).” [3]
The Fermi energy is the energy of an electron in the highest occupied orbital in a solid. “Pictorially, both Cooper pairing and superconductivity take place in the ‘foam’ produced by electron-phonon interactions on the surface of the ‘Fermi sea’ of occupied states.” In the electron-phonon interactions, the process is “nonenergy conserving (virtual process), and its ‘borrowed’ energy must be returned within the time interval specified by the Heisenberg uncertainty relation between time and energy.” [emphasis added] [3] [This nonenergy conserving (virtual process) is thus apparently the connecting link in Mach’s Principle, Hyperdimensional Physics, Zero-Point Energy, The Fifth Element, and in Connective Physics in general.]
“The stabilization energy from all the pair interactions goes into one energy state, the Cooper-pair state, which is a composite of all the interacting pair states.” [Machian combinations] “In the simplest version of BCS theory, applicable to weakly coupled superconductors, Tc depends linearly on the excitation energy of the system that mediates the electron pairing (here, the lattice vibration Ev) and exponentially on the superconducting coupling strength, which is the product of the pairing interaction (V) and the density of electronic states at the Fermi surface [D(EF)]: Tc = 1.14(Ev/kb) exp [-1/VD(EF)], where kb is the Boltzman constant. In a weakly coupled superconductor,” VD(EF) £ 0.5. In some superconductors it appears that the charge carriers are scattered not by lattice vibrations, but by interactions with the charge and/or magnetic fluctuations of some “unusual electronic system with a broad spectrum to excitations that extends down to very low frequencies. One possibility is fluctuations in the spin quantization axis (the axis along which the spins are aligned) of an antiferromagnetic spin system.” [3]
“Because a superconductor is a macroscopic quantum state, its wave function must be unchanged for any closed path within the superconductor. That is, the quantum mechanical phase change around this path must be an integral multiple of 2p (Df=2pn). This same restriction, when applied to orbital angular momentum, is what specifies the allowed electronic orbitals in the Bohr model of the atom.” “the phase change is related to the magnetic flux through the closed path by the equation: Df=2pqHA/h=2pn, where q is the particle charge, h is Planck’s constant, and the flux is the product of the magnetic field (H) and the area through the closed path (A).” [3]
“If necessary, a supercurrent will flow in a ring so as to adjust the net flux to the nearest quantized value.” “The Meisner effect is a consequence of flux quantization. Inside a superconductor in a magnetic field there will always be some closed path small enough that the quantized flux value closest to the flux determined by the magnetic field and the area encircled by the path is zero. Thus the superconductor will adjust the net flux in this region to zero.” [3] [Does this imply that in warping orbits or spin states — or the actual shapes of the electrons from their near perfect spherical shapes — that superconductivity of some sort arises to ensure quantum values are achieved?]
“The energy cost of expelling a magnetic field from a superconductor places an upper limit on the strength of the magnetic field that a superconductor can expel.” “One model includes “a combination of charge fluctuations, which cause Cooper pairs to form, and magnetic fluctuations, which break pairs apart.” Tunneling junctions are formed between 2 conductors, 2 superconductors, or a superconductor and conductor, separated by an insulating barrier. Because of the overlap of their wave functions in the barrier region, the charge carriers, even though they lack the energy to surmount the barrier, to ‘tunnel’ through it.” [emphasis added] Superconducting carrier density (per cc) varies from 1.6 x 1020 to 4.2 x 1021. [3]
Randeria, et al [4] have found “a smooth crossover from a state with large, overlapping Cooper pairs (for a weakly attractive pair potential) to a Bose condensate of composite bosons formed out of tightly bound pairs of fermions.” The Cooper-paired state is characterized by xokF >> 1, and the Bose condensed state by xokF << 1, where xo is the pair size, and 1/kF is the interparticle spacing.
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References:
[1] Sang, D. “Superconductivity,” New Scientist, Inside Science #97, 18 Jan, 1977.
[2] Ford, P.J. and Saunders, G.A., “High-temperature Superconductivity — ten years on,” Contemporary Physics, Vol 38, No. 1, January-February, 1997, pg 63-81.
[3] Adrian, F.J. and Cowan, D.O., “The New Superconductors”, Chemical and Engineering News, December 21, 1992, pg 24-41.
[4] Randeria, M., Duan, J-M, and Shieh, L-Y, “Bound States, Cooper Pairing, and Bose Condensation in Two Dimensions,” Physical Review Letters, 27 Feb, 1989, pg 981.
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Ervin Laszlo is the author or editor of 69 books translated into as many as 19 languages, and has over four hundred articles and research papers and six volumes of piano recordings to his credit. He serves as Editor of the monthly World Futures: The Journal of General Evolution and of its associated General Evolution Studies book series.