Tag: condensed matter
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What Makes a Magnet a Magnet?
What makes a magnet a magnet? From ancient lodestones to quantum spins, our understanding of magnetism has come a long way. This post explores the journey from classical theories to the quantum interactions that govern magnetic materials, revealing how tiny electron spins shape the magnetic world around us.
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Superconductivity: The High-Tc Puzzle
We have come to the last chapter on our superconductivity journey (for now). After finally understanding how superconductivity works, there was only one thing left to do: find materials with higher transition temperatures. In 1986, researchers did just that, but the superconductivity was not the same as before. The mechanism behind this new superconductivity is…
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Women of Quantum: Grete Hermann
Grete Hermann was a pioneer thinker. She had the philosophical mind to ask the right questions and the mathematical mind to answer them. Her insight could have shaped the history of quantum mechanics if it had not been hidden away for so long.
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Superconductivity: The Quantum Framework
It is the second half of the ’50s, and major global events are unfolding. In the meantime, a physics revolution is on the horizon. Bardeen, Cooper, and Schrieffer join forces, each contributing essential pieces to the BCS theory—the quantum answer to the superconductivity puzzle.
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Superconductivity: Decoding the Transition
uperconductivity is more than just a macroscopic phenomenon—it’s rooted in the collective behavior of electrons. In this post, we explore the Ginzburg-Landau theory, which bridges the gap between the microscopic and macroscopic worlds, offering a deeper understanding of how superconductivity arises. From the role of the order parameter to the physics of phase transitions, we…
The Spin of Things 