Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS March Meeting 2011
Volume 56, Number 1
Monday–Friday, March 21–25, 2011; Dallas, Texas
Session 1A: Industrial Physics Forum: History, Current Status, Future Prospects |
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Sponsoring Units: FIAP Chair: Robert Doering, Texas Instruments Room: Ballroom C1 |
Sunday, March 20, 2011 1:00PM - 1:40PM |
1A.00001: Room-Temperature Superconductivity: Prospects but Challenges Invited Speaker: Why do we not have ambient temperature superconductivity and all the benefits it would bring? If the challenge were less than profound, our celebrated industrial research/development approach should have succeeded in achieving this objective already. In fact, however, the unknowns we face with this issue are believed to involve entangled-many-body quantum mechanics beyond the limits of present understanding. We shall review these issues. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, March 20, 2011 1:40PM - 2:20PM |
1A.00002: Confirmation of BCS Theory and Its Impact on Applications Past and Future Invited Speaker: The experimental confirmation of BCS theory established it as the correct microscopic theory of superconductivity. It also led to applications of superconductivity distinct from those based on the Josephson effect and the magnetic properties of superconductors. The most prominent of these are SIS mixers for astronomy and high-Q filters for the cellular phone industry. In this talk we trace these historical developments and consider where today's more novel (beyond simple BCS) superconductors might be useful looking forward. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, March 20, 2011 2:20PM - 3:00PM |
1A.00003: From BCS to Vortices: A 40 Year Personal Journey through Superconductivity from Basic Research to Power Applications Invited Speaker: A century has passed since the discovery of superconductivity in Leiden followed 75 years later by the Great Leap Forward in \underline {Zuerich}.\footnote{``20th Anniversary of the Woodstock of Physics,'' APS March Meeting 2007, Denver, CO.} This talk will chronicle the author's trajectory through the science and technology of superconductivity first taking off with his IBM career in fundamental research on organic and layered copper oxide perovskite superconductors to a final landing at EPRI to explore applications of the latter to the electric power industry. Although many fundamental mysteries remain with respect to the copper and iron compounds, especially regarding the BCS pairing mechanism, nonetheless a significant number of successful demonstrations of cables, rotating machinery, storage and power conditioning equipment employing both low-and high-T$_{C}$ superconducting \underline {materials}\footnote{P. M. Grant, IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercon. \textbf{7}, 112 (1997).} have been undertaken worldwide since the decade of the 1960s to the present. However, massive application to the power industry has yet to take place or be inserted into utility long-range planning \underline {cycles}.\footnote{P. M. Grant, ``Superconductivity in Power Applications,'' submitted to the ICEC-ICMC 2010 Conference Proceedings.} Although there will certainly be a relatively small number of opportunistic deployments in those situations where superconductivity has a compelling advantage over conventional technology, its time will more likely await a future revolution in energy and electricity infrastructure such as a \underline {symbiosis}\footnote{P. M. Grant, C. Starr and T. J. Overbye, ``A Power Grid for the Hydrogen Economy,'' Scientific American, July 2006, p.76.} of nuclear and hydrogen with superconductivity. Perhaps the distant future will even deliver the \underline {dream}\footnote{P. M. Grant, Physics Today, May 1998.} of a room temperature superconductor. [Preview Abstract] |
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