Superconductivity

Superconductivity is a macroscopic quantum phenomenon, with complex and rich physical behaviors which have driven the interest and imagination of several generations of physicists. It was discovered in 1911, before the development of quantum mechanics, and it took almost half a century before the first comprehensive microscopic theory, BCS theory, was formulated. For a material to be classified as a superconductor, experiments have to demonstrate superconductivity, the flow of electrical current without dissipation in a state of practically zero electrical resistivity, perfect or partial diamagnetism associated with the Meissner–Ochsenfeld effect, and the Josephson effect, which is able to address the existence of the quantum macroscopic wave function of the superconducting state, in particular the importance of its phase. 

Superconductivity is one of the most common ground states of the matter, and nowadays, more than 12,000 superconducting materials are known. Measured critical temperatures are approaching room temperature, even though under extremely high pressures, new superconducting materials are continuously discovered and characterized, with the aim to achieve room temperature and ambient pressure superconductivity. Scientific research on superconductivity occupies not only a large portion of condensed matter physics, but ideas, theoretical methods, numerical techniques, fabrications, material synthesis, and experimental approaches developed in more than one century of studies to understand and control one of the most intriguing quantum phenomena in nature, have extended in several other fields of physics: atomic and nuclear physics, astrophysics, high energy physics, statistical mechanics and networks. 

Technological applications of superconductivity range from the nano to the macroscale: quantum sensors and high-precisions metrology, superconducting electronics, quantum computing, generation of giant magnetic fields, transport of large supercurrents, magnetic levitation, storage of electro-magnetic energy, high speed motors. 

The scope of the section “Superconductivity: Theory, Numerical Simulations, Experiments” of our journal seeks to offer a highly interactive arena for authors and readers, in order to report and discuss their recent achievements in this field.