Superconductivity at room temperature, infinite saga

get the Superconductivity at room temperature was one More ambitious goals of physicists. Success in doing so means opening the door wide An infinite number of technological applicationsReducing costs and increasing production and transportation efficiency electricity. The goal is ambitious because achieving it is very complex. In fact, superconductivity is a property that some materials tend to exhibit absolute zerowhich loses quickly with increasing temperature.

This issue is so important that it is the subject of heated debate among specialists. Indeed, in recent years, loud advertisements and sensational denials have alternated, which sometimes crossed into Allegations of fraudulent and unscientific behavior among colleagues. An endless saga today is enriched with a new chapter. ArXivServant Prepress (i.e. the database on which articles are uploaded before they are published in a peer-reviewed journal) most used by physicists, has remove kit paper On the topic of superconductivity because of theirs “Provocative content and unprofessional language”suspended for six months, as he says to knowone of the authors’ account, Jorge Hirschtheoretical physicist in University of California, San Diego (Ucsd). This is what happens.

previous episodes

First of all, context and summary of previous episodes, starting with the science behind the question. Under “normal” conditions (in this case we are referring to temperature) which substance is it flowing in electric current introduces a kind of “friction”, the resistanceto the passage of charge carriers, which leads among other things to the development of the heat By virtue of the so-called joule effect.

Things changed about a century ago when the German physicist Heke Kamerling Ons Find out in certain circumstances (and we’re talking about temperature in this case too), when there approaching absolute zeroThe resistance of some materials suddenly drops to zero: these materials become like this superconductors, charge carriers flow through it without dissipating energy by friction. The problem is that, right now, we can’t do that yet Repeat this mechanism convincingly and indisputably Room temperature. Achieving this goal will allow the current to be transmitted in a much better way, thus improving the efficiency of the distribution by several factors. Here is the revolution we talked about earlier.

Here are some recent skirmishes. In June 2019, a group of researchers from Indian Institute of Science He announced that he had developed a new nanomaterial based on silver particles encased in a matrix of gold atoms, which, according to it, turned out to be a superconductor at temperatures far from absolute zero.