Dresden 2011 – scientific programme

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TT: Fachverband Tiefe Temperaturen

TT 20: Focused Session: 50 Years of Flux Quantization

TT 20.1: Invited Talk

Tuesday, March 15, 2011, 10:30–11:00, HSZ 03

The discovery of fluxoid quantization: 2e or not 2e — •Dietrich Einzel — Walther-Meißner-Institut, D-85748 Garching

The year 2011 is quite remarkable because it allows us to celebrate not only the centennial of the discovery of superconductivity by Heike Kamerlingh–Onnes in 1911 but also the half–centennial of the discovery of what is referred to as fluxoid quantization in superconductors by Robert Doll and Martin Näbauer and, independently, by Bascom S. Deaver Jr. and William Fairbank. The experimental proof of the quantization of magnetic flux (or more accurately fluxoid) in hollow superconducting cylinders actually supports two important theoretical concepts, namely the pairing hypothesis formulated in the BCS theory of superconductivity and the concept of macroscopic phase coherence of the pair condensate. This talk is devoted to a discussion of the physics behind the Doll–Näbauer Deaver–Fairbank discoveries and is intended to review historically the chain of events which motivated these talented experimentalists and which led to their independent discoveries at quite remote points of the earth.