The phenomenon of superconductivity was discovered in 1911 when H. Kammerlingh Onnes cooled a quantity of mercury to 4.1K and found that it had lost all electrical resistance. This was soon followed by the observation of other metals which exhibit zero resistivity below a certain critical temperature. The fact that the resistance is zero has been demonstrated by sustaining currents in superconducting lead rings for many years with no measurable reduction. An induced current in an ordinary metal ring would decay rapidly from the dissipation of ordinary resistance, but superconducting rings had exhibited a decay constant of over a billion years! Think about what this means , the current in a super conductor circulates for years without any appreciable loss!
Theoretical discussions had long speculated about what would happen when conductors were super cooled, because it was known that resistance to the flow of an electric current was due to electrons colliding with each other and with the crystal lattice thereby impeding the smooth flow of current. It was reasoned that if the conductor were super cooled all of the electrons would have minimum movement and the vibrations or oscillations of the crystal lattice structure of the metal conductor would also be considerably lowered, resulting in the free flow of current. Although the premise proved to be correct it did so in a surprising manner. Metals such as copper, aluminium and silver which were extremely good conductors under normal temperatures, proved to respond poorly to the process of being super-cooled and did not exhibit zero resistance. Mercury on the other hand which is a fair conductor of electricity (906 ohms) but which cannot be used as a conductor due to its liquid form becomes a superconductor when cooled to 4.1 K although the current it can carry in this state is negligible. One of the properties of a superconductor is that it will exclude magnetic fields, a phenomenon called the Meissner effect.
In an earlier article : Gestalt Aether Theory and Magnetism : I had explained how the crystalline lattice structure of metals was critical to both their properties as conductors of electricity and to their abilities to be susceptible to permanent magnetism. Thus the structure of the crystalline metal lattice involved, dictated much of the properties of of the metal. For instance silver, aluminium and copper all possessing Face Centered Cubic crystalline structures are good conductors of electricity and a look at how these Face Centered Cubic structure are packed with atoms immediately explains why they are good conductors of electricity since there is an excess of valence electrons present which can wander freely through the interstitial spaces of the conductor and offer good possibilities for conveying of a current. Iron, Cobalt and Nickel on the other hand possess Body Centered Cubic crystalline structures and therefore possess fewer free valence electrons, on the other hand all of these metals also possess the property of allotropy, which makes them excellent candidates for permanent magnetism. It follows that exactly the same criteria must apply also to superconductors, the property of superconductivity being to a large extent determined by the crystalline structure of the substance concerned. Sure enough Mercury turns out to have a simple trigonal crystal structure, which incidentally also has the smallest packing structure i.e., the least number of atoms in the crystal. This means that the electrons are very tightly bound to the atoms indeed, there are no electrons to spare. Theoretically, it appears that this indeed would be the ideal structure that might lend itself to superconductivity; at ordinary temperatures it is a fair conductor of electricity, yet its electrons are so tightly bound that it is a poor conductor of heat! It is possible therefore that a metal with such properties would when super cooled result in the cessation of all movement and display the property of zero resistance, and this is exactly what does happen.
Not surprisingly it turns out that, just as in the phenomenon of permanent magnetism, in super conductivity also, the best results are obtained not through pure elements but through the use of alloys. In the case of magnetism , alloys such as aluminium , nickel and cobalt to make Alnico magnets, gets the best results. Similarly with regard to super conductivity it is found that yttrium compounds consisting of copper, barium and other materials such as lanthanum, yield by far the best performance as super conductors.
Where does Gestalt Aether Theory enter into all this ?
In order to understand how or where Gestalt Aether Theory fits into this scenario it is necessary to go back over some of the core principles of Gestalt Aether Theory.
Photon Propagation
Try to imagine how photons propagate according to the Gestalt Aether theory. A single photon is emitted and enters the ‘virtual photon aether’ where it is surrounded on all sides by ‘virtual photons’ that line up in its direction of propagation forming a line whose ends rest on infinity. As the photon propagates it shares its energy with the photons directly in contact with it, because of its configuration or shape and the speed at which it is propagating, this means that initially the four ‘virtual photons’ in immediate contact with the real photon share the real photon’s energy and are themselves ‘promoted’ to the status of real photons. As the real photon continues to travel forward at the speed of light those, original four ‘virtual photons’ that have been promoted to real photon status, share their energy with the ‘virtual photons’ in immediate contact with them, thus at three metres the original photon energy is dispersed across 9 photons and at 4 meters it is dispersed across 16 photons and so on in keeping with the inverse square law. Each of these photons has the energy of the original real photon. Thus if the original real photon had a frequency of $latex 550 x 10^{14} Hz$ its energy would be $latex h*\mu$ or
$latex 6.6*{10}^{-34}*5.50*{10}^{16}= 3.63*{10}^{-17}C$ .
Thus each of the ‘virtual photons that has been promoted to the status of the real photon would share its identity or energy of
$latex 3.63*{10}^{-17}C$.
How is this possible? In order to understand how the original photon energy is shared we have to come back to the concept of frequency, in this case photons are being emitted at the rate of $latex 5.50 *{10}^{16}$ photons per second, as these photons travel up the line their energy is also shared laterally.
Photons in a wire carrying electricity
In a wire carrying electricity, the current is carried by ‘conduction’ photons. In good conductors the valence electrons are only loosely connected to atoms and large numbers of them travel freely in the interstitial spaces of the conductor. When a difference of potential is established across the ends of the conductor, large numbers of ‘conduction’ photons are released into the conductor. ‘Conduction’ photons are low energy photons having an energy of approx. $latex 1.6 * {10}^{-19}C$ and a wave length of $latex 1.2 * {10 }^{-6}m$. The free electrons in the conductor are allowed by the conservation of momentum laws to absorb and emit ‘conduction’ photons providing they immediately re-absorb a photon of exactly the same energy in less than $latex {10}^{-15} $ sec . Photons need to be re-absorbed by electrons that have the right energy value, these are readily available in the conductor, hence photons exit and immediately re-enter the conductor giving rise to the lines of force around the conductor. Here the photons are connected in series and each line of force contains the energy of a single conduction photon or $latex 1.6 * {10}^{-19}C$. In a conductor at normal temperatures, the situation is chaotic, electrons are absorbing and emitting conduction photons in all directions, thus a conduction photon may emit one conduction photon but absorb another one, so there is no order things are quite chaotic.
Now try to imagine things happening in slow motion within the conductor for a moment; a photon has just been emitted from a free electron within the conductor, it has to be absorbed as soon as possible. Up ahead it sees a free electron that is in need of a photon, as it nears the electron another photon comes in between and is absorbed, the photon changes direction and switches to a nearby target but that too is taken, leaving the photon no option but to exit the conductor, as it does so it senses an electron within the conductor that has just emitted a photon and is in need of another, the photon therefore re-enters the conductor and is absorbed by that electron or another. Yet throughout this seemingly chaotic process, strict order is maintained, the line of one one photon never crosses another, each photon travels in its own trajectory around and in the conductor without crossing into another photon’s territory.
Super conductors
Now think of things within a super conducting material that has been cooled to the critical temperature. If a charge is introduced into the superconductor what happens? Things are extremely ordered, each photon has its chosen bound electron there is no confusion each electron is emitting and absorbing conduction photons in an annular pattern within the conductor, there are no photons exiting the conductor. In an earlier article on magnetism: Gestalt Aether Theory and Magnetism: , a description had been given of how in certain metals such as iron, nickel and cobalt it was bound valence electrons in the conductor that emitted and absorbed ‘conduction’ photons. In super conductors a similar situation arises but carried to such an extreme, that no conduction photons exit the conductor at all. The current is restricted to going round and round within the wire, being absorbed and emitted by the same electrons. Since no lines of force appear around the conductor it follows that no lines of force from an external source can react with the conductor. At the same time since the conductor is surrounded by the ’virtual photon aether’ it follows that conduction photons circulating near the surface of the super conductor will interact with the ‘virtual photons’ of the Aether. What form will this interaction take ? Look at the image below:
Common sense tells us that an annular pattern of promoted virtual photons will be created above the super conductor, an ordinary magnet brought into contact with this annular field, will float above the super conductor.
This is perhaps the final proof of the Gestalt Aether Theory. Here just by following simple reasoning based upon hypotheses made in the best Newtonian tradition, predictions can be made that are borne out by experimental proof. Cooper pairing as an explanation for this phenomenon just does not cut it!