Possible high-temperature superconductivity in brain

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• Pavlo Mikheenko (Oslo)
• Wednesday 19 December 2018, 13:00-14:00
• Physics East 217.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Dr Giovanni Barontini.

There is impressive progress in increasing critical temperature (Tc) of superconducting compounds. With the recent discovery of superconductivity at high pressure in H3S with Tc of 203 K [1], the prospects of finding room temperature superconductivity become quite realistic. The important pathways for synthesis of compounds with high Tc were outlined in [2]. The conclusion of the paper is that the highest probability of discovering room temperature superconductivity is in hydrated, to which H3S belongs too. The specifics of hydrates is that pairing interaction is provided by high-energy optical, in addition to acoustic, phonons [3]. Presence of light elements like hydrogen is crucial for high Tc. Another way to reach Tc above room temperature is to use electron-electron rather than electron-phonon pairing interaction. This was demonstrated by Little in his theoretical model [4]. Additional to employing electron-electron interaction, important assumption of [4] is to use a low-dimensional quantum system. Early search for new superconductors in three-dimensional (3D) materials did not give particular high Tc until a quasi-2D class of materials was discovered by Bednorz and Mueller [5]. Quasi-1D organic systems with specific pairing interaction [4] promise much higher Tc, up to 2200 K. Knowing this tendency and following general idea suggested in [6] that if room-temperature superconductivity exists, it should be in a system with high level of organization, i.e. nervous system and brain, electrical measurements of brain slices were performed [7]. In these measurements, the idea to use graphene as room-temperature quantum mediator was utilized [8]. The brain is composed of neurons containing microtubules, which are quasi-1D organic structures that might be responsible for superconductivity. The results of electrical measurements of brain slices will be reported. The estimated from the measurements Tc is close to that predicted in the model of Little [4].

1. Drozdov, A. P., Eremets, M. I., Troyan, I. A., Ksenofontov, V., Shylin, S. I.: Nature 525, 73 (2015). 2. Kresin, V.Z.: J. of Supercond. and Novel Magn. 31, 611 (2018). 3. Gor’kov, L. P., Kresin, V.Z.: Rev. Mod. Phys. 90, 011001 (2018). 4. Little, W. A.: Phys. Rev. 134, A1416 (1964). 5. Bednorz, G., and Mueller, K.: Z. Phys. B 64 , 189 (1986). 6. Halperin, E.H., Wolf, A.A.: Speculations of superconductivity in biological and organic systems. In: Advances in cryogenic engineering, vol. 17, Timmerhaus, K.D. (ed) Springer Science + Business Media LLC (1972). 7. Mikheenko, P.: J. of Supercond. and Novel Magn., submitted (2018). 8. Mikheenko, P.: IEEE Xplore Digital Library 7757272 (2016).

This talk is part of the Cold atoms series.

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• Bham Talks
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