The Hunt for Gollum

Superconductors defy normal magnetic rules

Imagine a fridge magnet sticking to your fridge door all day, even when you unplug it. Frustrating, right?

Superconductors, like a special fridge magnet, don't let magnetic fields mess with them once they're turned on. They expel magnetic fields completely, making them perfect diamagnets.

Example

A fridge magnet (normal magnet) sticks to the fridge door, but a superconductor (special fridge magnet) would repel the fridge's magnetic field entirely.

Remember this

Superconductors show perfect diamagnetism by completely expelling magnetic fields.

Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Related concepts

BCS theory

BCS theory explains superconductivity through Cooper pairs of electrons

Aharonov–Bohm effect

Electrons experience phase shifts due to electromagnetic potentials without magnetic fields

Fractional quantum Hall effect

Hall conductance quantized at fractional values of e^2/h

Cooper pair

Cooper pairs are bound electrons with opposite spin and momentum

Ising model

The Ising model describes ferromagnetism using interacting spins on a lattice

Casimir effect

Casimir effect arises from quantum vacuum fluctuations

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