BCS as Foundation and Inspiration: The Transmutation of Symmetry
The BCS theory injected two powerful ideas into the collective consciousness of theoretical physics: pairing and spontaneous symmetry breaking. In the 50 years since the seminal work of Bardeen, Cooper and Schrieffer, those ideas have found important use in areas quite remote from the stem applicati...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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World Scientific
2013
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/76671 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6489-6155 |
| _version_ | 1826210949850202112 |
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| author | Wilczek, Frank |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Theoretical Physics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Theoretical Physics Wilczek, Frank |
| author_sort | Wilczek, Frank |
| collection | MIT |
| description | The BCS theory injected two powerful ideas into the collective consciousness of theoretical physics: pairing and spontaneous symmetry breaking. In the 50 years since the seminal work of Bardeen, Cooper and Schrieffer, those ideas have found important use in areas quite remote from the stem application to metallic superconductivity. This is a brief and eclectic sketch of some highlights, emphasizing relatively recent developments in QCD and in the theory of quantum statistics, and including a few thoughts about future directions. A common theme is the importance of symmetry transmutation, as opposed to the simple breaking of electromagnetic U(1) symmetry in classic metallic superconductors. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:58:00Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/76671 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:58:00Z |
| publishDate | 2013 |
| publisher | World Scientific |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/766712022-09-29T11:44:09Z BCS as Foundation and Inspiration: The Transmutation of Symmetry Wilczek, Frank Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Theoretical Physics Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Wilczek, Frank The BCS theory injected two powerful ideas into the collective consciousness of theoretical physics: pairing and spontaneous symmetry breaking. In the 50 years since the seminal work of Bardeen, Cooper and Schrieffer, those ideas have found important use in areas quite remote from the stem application to metallic superconductivity. This is a brief and eclectic sketch of some highlights, emphasizing relatively recent developments in QCD and in the theory of quantum statistics, and including a few thoughts about future directions. A common theme is the importance of symmetry transmutation, as opposed to the simple breaking of electromagnetic U(1) symmetry in classic metallic superconductors. 2013-01-30T18:48:05Z 2013-01-30T18:48:05Z 2010-12 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0217-7323 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/76671 Wilczek, Frank. “BCS as Foundation and Inspiration: The Transmutation of Symmetry.” Modern Physics Letters A 25.38 (2010): 3169–3189. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6489-6155 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1142/s0217732310034626 Modern Physics Letters A Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ application/pdf World Scientific arXiv |
| spellingShingle | Wilczek, Frank BCS as Foundation and Inspiration: The Transmutation of Symmetry |
| title | BCS as Foundation and Inspiration: The Transmutation of Symmetry |
| title_full | BCS as Foundation and Inspiration: The Transmutation of Symmetry |
| title_fullStr | BCS as Foundation and Inspiration: The Transmutation of Symmetry |
| title_full_unstemmed | BCS as Foundation and Inspiration: The Transmutation of Symmetry |
| title_short | BCS as Foundation and Inspiration: The Transmutation of Symmetry |
| title_sort | bcs as foundation and inspiration the transmutation of symmetry |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/76671 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6489-6155 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT wilczekfrank bcsasfoundationandinspirationthetransmutationofsymmetry |