The Superconducting State in Nature

Abstract

We have already remarked that superconductivity is not just the absence of electrical resistance in some solid conductors. In fact, we are dealing with a peculiar correlated state of matter. In this chapter we will talk about the properties of a number of objects which, at first glance, have nothing in common. However, the real subjects of discussion will be the interconnection of different natural phenomena and the various manifestations of the peculiar superconducting state of matter. Low-temperature physics in general, and the physics of superconductivity in particular, has had an enormous influence on other branches of physics. As we shall see, many examples of this influence were quite unexpected, which makes the picture all the more interesting.