inexplicable superconductor fractals hint at higher universal laws, Brandon Keim, Wired.com: Rich Murray 2010.10.10

[Rich Murray]

inexplicable superconductor fractals hint at higher universal laws, Brandon
Keim, Wired.com: Rich Murray 2010.10.11
http://rmforall.blogspot.com/2010_10_01_archive.htm
Sunday, October 11, 2010
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Rich: see also:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandelbrot_set

Moving deeper into the infinite detail of fractal sets could be seen as a
continuous dimension, a fifth dimension adding to the possibilies allowed by
the usual 3 + 1 dimensions of space and time.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loop_quantum_gravity

Loop Quantum Gravity by Lee Smolin is one of many paradigms that allow
derivation of our space-time and its evolution, with energy-momentum
processes represented by geometric fluctuations.

I envision an infinite multiverse that is an unbounded fractal.

The fifth fractal dimension, as it were, adds a huge amount of "elbow room"
to our geometric models -- in addition to the sequential waves that define
our causality flows, the vast "extra" space of the fifth dimension allows
any region to interact intimately as a whole with every minute event-region
within, adding a new principle of organization, and so expediting processes
to be "in the flow", "superslippery", "fully informed", "maximally creative
and expansive" -- so electronic superconductivy represents our first
scientifically simple anomaly that allows our thought to open to, as it is,
our actual home as evolving streams of creative awarenesses within
"hyperawareness".

In recent centuries of mathematical creative exploration, infinity has
rather inevitably become progressively rich, essential, mandatory,
universal, primal.

Not merely "just thought", "in the brain", "normal", "constrained", "more of
the same",  the fabric of shared human experience on all levels is itself
mutating rapidly, as the "paranormal" becomes as normal and prevalent as
color vision is now.

Everything at once is the way, as glory gloriates.

In mutual service,  Rich


http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/superconductor-fractals/

Inexplicable Superconductor Fractals Hint at Higher Universal Laws

By Brandon Keim   August 11, 2010 1:00 pm   Categories: Physics

What seemed to be flaws in the structure of a mystery metal may have given
physicists a glimpse into as-yet-undiscovered laws of the universe.

The qualities of a high-temperature superconductor -- a compound in which
electrons obey the spooky laws of quantum physics, and flow in perfect
synchrony, without friction -- appear linked to the fractal arrangements of
seemingly random oxygen atoms.

Those atoms weren't thought to matter, especially not in relation to the
behavior of individual electrons, which exist at a scale thousands of times
smaller.
The findings, published Aug. 12 in Nature, are a physics equivalent of
discovering a link between two utterly separate dimensions.

"We don't know the theory for this," said physicist Antonio Bianconi of Rome's
Sapienza University.
"We just make the experimental observation that the two worlds seem to
interfere."

Unlike semiconductors, the metals on which modern electronics rely,
superconductors allow electrons to pass through without resistance.
Rather than bouncing haphazardly, the electrons' movements are perfectly
synchronized.
They flow like a fluid, but without viscosity.

For most of the 20th century, this was possible only in certain extremely
pure metals at temperatures approaching absolute zero, cold enough to quench
all motion but that of quantum particles, which interact with each other in
ways that defy the classic laws of space and time.

Then, in the mid-1980s, physicists Karl Muller and Johannes Bednorz
discovered a class of ceramic compounds in which superconductivity was
possible at much higher temperatures.
The temperatures were still hundreds of degrees Fahrenheit below zero, but
it wasn't even thought possible.
Muller and Bednorz soon won a Nobel Prize, but subsequent decades and
thousands of researchers have not yielded a theory of high-temperature
superconductivity.

"High temperatures should destroy the quantum phenomenon," said Bianconi,
who decided to investigate another odd property of these materials: They're
not quite regular.
Oxygen atoms roam inside, and assume random positions as they freeze.
"Everyone was looking at these materials as ordered and homogeneous," said
Bianconi.
That is not the case -- but neither, he found, was the position of oxygen
atoms truly random.
Instead, they assumed complex geometries, possessing a fractal form:
A small part of the pattern resembles a larger part, which in turn resembles
a larger part, and so on.

"Such fractals are ubiquitous elsewhere in nature," wrote Leiden University
theoretical physicist Jan Zaanen in an accompanying commentary, but "it
comes as a complete surprise that crystal defects can accomplish this feat."

If what Zaanen described as "surprisingly beautiful" patterns were all
Bianconi found, the results would have been striking enough.
But they appear to have a function.

In Bianconi's samples, larger fractals correlated with higher
superconductivity temperatures.
When the fractal disappeared at a distance of 180 micrometers,
superconductivity appeared at 32 degrees Kelvin.
When it vanished at 400 micrometers, conductivity went quantum at 42 degrees
Kelvin.

At -384 degrees Fahrenheit, that's still plenty cold, but it's heading
towards the truly high-temperature superconductivity that Bianconi describes
as "the dream" of his field, making possible miniature supercomputers that
run at everyday temperatures.

However, while the arrangement of oxygen atoms appears to influence the
quantum behaviors of electrons, neither Bianconi nor Zaanen have any idea
how that could be.

That fractal arrangements are seen in so many other systems -- from leaf
patterns to stock market fluctuations to the frequency of earthquakes --  
suggests some sort of common underlying laws, but these remain speculative.

According to Zaanen, the closest mathematical description of superconductive
behavior comes from something called "Anti de Sitter space / Conformal Field
Theory correspondence," a subset of string theory that attempts to describe
the physics of black holes.

That's a dramatic connection.
But as Zaanen wrote, "This fractal defect structure is astonishing, and
there is nothing in the textbooks even hinting at an explanation."

Image: At left, the organization of oxygen atoms (blue dots) within the
superconducting metal;
at right, measurements of superconductivity temperature according to the
distance (x- and y-axes) at which fractal organization was still
evident./Nature.

See Also:

Quantum Entanglement Visible to the Naked Eye
Quantum Physics Used to Control Mechanical System
Amazing Starling Flocks Are Flying Avalanches

Citations:
 "Scale-free structural organization of oxygeninterstitials in La2CuO41+y."
By Michela Fratini, Nicola Poccia, Alessandro Ricci, Gaetano Campi, Manfred
Burghammer, Gabriel Aeppli & Antonio Bianconi.
Nature, Vol. 466 No. 7308, August 12, 2010.

"The benefit of fractal dirt." By Jan Zaanen. Nature, Vol. 466 No. 7308,
August 12, 2010.

Brandon Keim's Twitter stream and reportorial outtakes; Wired Science on
Twitter.
Brandon is currently working on a book about ecological tipping points.
Tags: fractals, materials, quantum physics
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24 comments, many very thoughtful -- I liked this one:

Posted by: juliec  08/12/10  10:01 am
Great story and great comments!
I've always thought fractals are the physical representation of infinity --  
as it approaches zero (smaller than a quark) and as something that
encompasses the Multiverse.
It's good to see that we have evidence of this phenomenon literally in our
hands.and that it's baffling our intelligentsia.

http://www.stampa.cnr.it/docUfficioStampa/comunicati/italiano/2010/Settembre/66_set_2010.doc

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:2pYfPc_B2iUJ:www.stampa.cnr.it/docUfficioStampa/comunicati/italiano/2010/Settembre/66_set_2010.doc+%E2%80%9CScale-free+structural+organization+of+oxygen+interstitials+in+La2CuO41%2By.%E2%80%9D&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
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Rich Murray, MA
Boston University Graduate School 1967 psychology,
BS MIT 1964, history and physics,
1943 Otowi Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505
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