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Superconductivity: From mystery to mastery

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — The year 2007 marks the 50th anniversary of the BCS (Bardeen, Cooper, Schrieffer) theory of superconductivity. In celebration, 60 of the world's brightest minds in quantum physics, spintronics, and condensed matter physics will gather at Brown University on April 12 and 13.

Five Nobel Prize winners will participate in the symposium and give public lectures on April 12. On April 13, the symposium speakers include several rising stars, who will focus on some of the most challenging questions facing physicists today.

"The creation and teaching of new knowledge is among the highest aims in research universities," said Ruth Simmons, president of Brown University. "The curiosity, insight and dedication that Leon Cooper brought to the mystery of superconductivity has demonstrated well to students and colleagues in physics, neuroscience and beyond how inspiring such an achievement can be on a college campus."

Traditionally, physicists mark such events with a scientific symposium, rather than (or in addition to) a grand party. In addition to the scientific lectures, researchers will offer a series of public lectures and panels on the afternoon of April 12 in Salomon Hall on the Brown University campus.

See attachment for schedule and speakers.

Superconductivity – the abrupt loss of electrical resistance at very low temperatures in certain materials – was discovered in 1911, but remained a mystery until 1957. In that year, John Bardeen and Robert Schrieffer proposed an explanation that relied on Leon Cooper's theory of electron pairing. In 1972 the Nobel Prize Committee recognized the success of BCS theory with a Nobel Prize.

In 1957, the BCS theory provided a unifying explanation for the bewildering behavior of super-conductive materials. In the years since, the remarkable theory has opened up a new field of physics and revealed an approach to complexity that has proved useful many disparate areas of science.

"The BCS theory provided a robust and broadly applicable explanation for a problem that many physicists considered unapproachable," said Professor Chung-I Tan, chairman of the Brown physics department. "The resolution to the puzzle of superconductivity led to a paradigm shift in our understanding of quantum principles and the symmetries of physical laws. The symposium celebrates that achievement by gathering together physicists who are working on some of today's most daunting problems."

Cooper's insight into the coordination of electrons allowed the team to discover an elegant solution to a problem that had been forbiddingly complex. Today, the BCS theory is considered one of the most sturdy—and useful—tools for explaining a wide variety of physical phenomena, in-cluding those in condensed matter physics, but also in many seemingly unrelated fields.

Superconductors have the potential to revolutionize the transmission of electrical power, transportation and even computers, making our world safer, quieter and more efficient. Highly effi-cient maglev trains speed cross-continent powered by superconductive magnets and today's high temperature superconductors can transmit 150 times more power than conventional copper wires.

A conference web site (http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Physics/50YearsBCS/) provides ad-ditional information on the scientific conference and the public lectures (http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Physics/50YearsBCS/hourbyhour.html).

Editors: Brown University has a fiber link television studio available for domestic and interna-tional live and taped interviews and maintains an ISDN line for radio interviews. For more in-formation, call the Office of Media Relations at (401) 863-2476.

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