English

Superconductivity - the first 100 years

History and Philosophy of Physics 2011-10-11 v2 Superconductivity

Abstract

On the occasion of centenary of superconductivity discovery I remind some facts from the first period and attempts to understand the phenomenon. It turns out that most famous physicists of the first half of XX century have tried to solve the puzzle. Bardeen, Cooper and Schrieffer succeeded in 1957. BCS theory successfully described all known facts and offered new predictions, which soon have been confirmed experimentally contributing to the widespread acceptance of the theory. New discoveries of the last quarter of the century put new requirements for the theory. It turns out that simple BCS model is not enough to understand new unconventional or exotic superconductors. Even though the superconductors have found many important applications in various branches they have not yet fulfilled the hopes. In spite of that the scientific studies of superconductors develop vividly and fascinate new generations of physicists.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1109.0711,
  title  = {Superconductivity - the first 100 years},
  author = {Karol Izydor Wysokinski},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1109.0711},
  year   = {2011}
}

Comments

14 pages, 1 figure. In polish, to be published in Postepy Fizyki. Eq. 8 and some typos corrected

R2 v1 2026-06-21T18:59:27.991Z