The importance of order

 

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2003

       
 

Ginzburg
Vitaly L. Ginzburg
 P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute, Moscow, Russia
 

Together with his colleague Lev Landau, Vitaly Ginzburg developed a phenomenological theory of superconductivity in the late 1940s. This theory proposes that those electrons that contribute to superconduction form a superfluid. The superconductor is described by a complex function called the order parameter, and indicates the fraction of electrons that has condensed into a superfluid.

Order parameter
 

The Ginzburg-Landau order parameter
is the solution of an equation similar to
the quantum-mechanical wave equation.

 

Contents:
| Introduction | Swirling superfluids | Two types of superconductors & It takes two
| The importance of order | Vortices give guidance | A fluid with directions | Theories put to work | Timeline | Further reading | Credits |
  Web Adapted Version of the Nobel Poster from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

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