Superconductivity: A Time Region Phenomenon Prof. K.V-K. Nehru, Ph.D. 1 Introduction The chief characteristic of superconductivity is the complete absence of the electrical resistance. As the temperature is decreased, the change from the normal to the superconducting state takes place abruptly at a critical temperature T.. Though the phenomenon was discovered as far back as 1911, it resisted all theoretical understanding and not until 1957 was the famous BCS theory (Bardeen, Cooper, and Schrieffer) propounded. According to this theory, superconductivity occurs when the repulsive interaction between two electrons is overcome by an attractive one, resulting from a mechanism which gives rise to electron pairs since then known to be called the “Cooper Pairs’”—that behaved like bosons and moved without resistance. The tunneling and flux quantization experiments firmly established the presence of electron pairs. However, the phonon mechanism of electron pairing remained experimentally unproven. Subsequent experimental work brought to light many anomalies and unexplained results which demonstrated the inadequacy of the BCS theory. The theoretical trend, in the past decade, has been toward invoking the quantum mechanical concept of “exchange interactions” for the explanation of the formation of the electron pairs. The explanation of the phenomenon of superconductivity from the point of view of the Reciprocal System, however, has not yet been attempted. Larson himself refers to the phenomenon with nothing more than a passing remark.' As the present author sees, progress toward this end would not have been possible in the Reciprocal System, as it needed the discovery of a new development, which emerged only recently. This is the new light thrown by the study of the “photon controversy,” leading to the discovery of birotation.’ It has been shown there that the two equal, and opposite rotational components of a birotation manifest as a linear Simple Harmonic Motion (SHM). The knowledge of this now opens the way toward understanding the phenomenon of superconductivity. 2 The Origin of the Phenomenon It has been well-recognized that superconductivity, from the abruptness of its occurrence at the temperature T., is a collective phenomenon—like that of ferromagnetism, for example—involving all particles co-operatively. We have shown that the ferromagnetic ordering is the phenomenon of the time region.? We now find that superconductivity is the result of the electron motion entering the time region. In fact, since in solids the atoms are already in the time region, the region inside unit space, it follows that superconductivity, like ferromagnetism, results when the motion concerned crosses another regional boundary, namely, the time region unit of space (which is a compound unit). 1 Larson, Dewey B., Basic Properties of Matter, the International Society of Unified Science, Utah, U.S.A., 1983, p. 104. 2 K.V.K. Nehru, “The Law of Conservation of Direction,” Reciprocity, XVIII (3), Autumn 1989, pp. 3-6. 3 K.V.K. Nehru, “Is Ferromagnetism A Co-magnetic Phenomenon?”, Reciprocity, XIX (1), Spring 1990, p. 6 Reciprocity 19 Ne 3 page | Copyright ©1990 by ISUS, Inc. All rights reserved. Rev. 16 2 Superconductivity: A Time Region Phenomenon 2.1 The Perfect Conductor Larson points out: “...the electron is essentially nothing more than a rotating unit of space.”* He identifies the movement of the electrons (rotating units of space) through matter (a time structure) as the electric current. We might note that there is no electric charge associated with these electrons. One of the causes, according to Larson, of the resistance to the flow of current is the spatial component of the thermal motion of the atoms. “If the atoms of the matter through which the current passes are effectively at rest..., uniform motion of the electrons (space) through matter has the same general properties as motion of matter through space. It follows Newton’s first law of motion... and can continue indefinitely... This situation exists in the phenomenon known as superconductivity.”' We would like to point out that the actual situation is somewhat different. Firstly, as we will see later, superconductivity is not solely a phenomenon of zero resistance which we shall call the perfect conduction (that is, infinite conductivity), which is what Larson seems to imply by “superconductivity” in the paragraph cited above. The second fact is concerning the resistance caused by the impurity atoms due to their space displacement. Since the current moves, according to the Reciprocal System, through all the atoms of the conductor (including the impurity atoms), and not through the interstices between the atoms, there is a large contribution by the impurity atoms to the resistance.° Mere reduction of the thermal motion, therefore, cannot serve to eliminate the cause of resistance to the current. 2.2 The Electron Pair as a Birotation In the “uncharged state the electrons cannot move with reference to extension space, because they are inherently rotating units of space, and the relation of space to space is not motion. ... In the context of the stationary spatial system the uncharged electron, like the photon, is carried outward by the progression of the natural reference system.’ But as the temperature is decreased below the critical value T, and the electrons in the solid enter the region of the inside of the compound unit of space, the direction of the electron motion changes from outward to inward from the point of view of the stationary reference system. Thus the electrons start moving toward each other, as if mutually attracting. Remembering that the electron is a unit of rotational space, when two of them with antiparallel rotations approach each other to an effective distance of less than one compound unit of space, the two opposite rotations form into a birotation. As explained in detail elsewhere’ a birotation manifests as a Simple Harmonic Motion (SHM). We might call this process the “pair condensation,” following the conventional nomenclature. The formation into the birotation (that is, SHM) has two distinct effects which need to be noted: i. the character of the motion changes from rotational (two-dimensional in extension space) to linear (one-dimensional in extension space); ii. the magnitude of the motion changes from steady (constant speed in time) to undulatory (varying speed in time). Let us call these two effects respectively the “dimension-reduction” and the “activation” for ease of future reference. 4 Larson, Dewey B., Basic Properties of Matter, op. cit., p. 102. 5 Ibid., p. 114. 6 Ibid., p. 113. Superconductivity: A Time Region Phenomenon 3 2.3. The Zero Electrical Resistivity The rotational space, that is the electron, may be regarded as a circular disk area. We see that the effect of the dimensional-reduction is to turn the disk area into a straight line element (of zero area). What causes the electrical resistance in normal conduction is the finiteness of the projected area of the electron in the direction of current flow. The vanishing of this projected area on pair formation eliminates the cause for the resistance and turns the material into a perfect conductor (zero resistivity). It should be emphasized that a dimension-reduction from a three-dimensional spatial extension (say, a spherical volume) to a two-dimensional spatial extension (a circular disk) could not have accomplished such an elimination of projected area. This is only possible when the reduction is from a two- dimensional spatial extension to the one-dimension. In the conventional parlance we might say that while the single-electron (rotational) is a fermion, the electron pair (linear SHM) behaves as a boson. In the analogous case of a photon, we see that the photon is a linear SHM and is a boson. One can, therefore, conjecture that the circularly polarized photon’ ought to behave like a fermion. | suppose that an experimental verification of this prediction could easily be borne out. 3 The Meissner Effect This an interaction between superconductivity and magnetic field and serves to distinguish a superconductor from the so-called “perfect conductor.” If we could place a perfect conductor in an external magnetic field, no lines of magnetic flux would penetrate the sample since the induced surface currents would counteract the effect of the external field. Now imagine a normal conductor, placed in the magnetic field and the temperature lowered, such that at T, it turns into a perfect conductor while in that field (see top row Figure 1, which is adopted from Blackmore’). The field that was coursing through it would be continuing to do so (top center, Figure 1). If now the external field is removed (top right) the change in this field would induce electrical currents in it which would be persisting (as there is no resistance), and these currents produce the internal flux that gets locked in as shown. But the situation is quite different in the case of the superconductor. As can be seen from the bottom row of Figure 1, a metal placed in an external magnetic field and cooled through the superconducting transition temperature T, expels all flux lines from the interior (providing, of course, the field is less than a critical value, H.) (see bottom center). This is called the Meissner Effect. In fact, the external field threading the superconductor generates persistent surface currents, and these currents generate an internal field that exactly counterbalances the external field resulting in the flux expulsion phenomenon. Termination of the external field induces an opposing surface current which cancels the previous one and leaves the superconductor both field-free and current free. Now the crucial point that should be noted is that a constant magnetic flux threading a conductor that is stationary relative to it does not induce an electric current. What induces a current is a change in the magnetic field. In the case of a perfect conductor we considered above, the field is steady (that is, constant with time) and no induced currents appear (top center, Figure 1). But in the case of the superconductor, the steady field does induce an electric current. This has been a recalcitrant fact that defied explanation in the conventional theory and forced the theorists to hazard weird conceptual contrivances like the exchange interactions. The development of the Reciprocal System has clearly demonstrated that in all such cases there is no need to devise extreme departures 7 Blackmore JS., Solid State Physics, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1985, p. 274. 4 Superconductivity: A Time Region Phenomenon othe gn ty e, < e, att ene! TTT Oe The Superconductor TST Ta T0 0