BCS: 50 Years
BCS: 50 Years is a review volume edited by Leon Cooper, a 1972 Nobel Laureate in Physics, and Dmitri Feldman of Brown University, first published in 2010. The book consists of 23 articles written by outstanding physicists, including many Nobel prize-winners, and presents the complete theory of superconductivity - a phenomenon where the electrical resistance of some metallic materials suddenly vanish at temperatures near absolute zero. Background. Sixty years ago, in 1957, John Bardeen, Leon Cooper and John Robert Schrieffer finally pieced together the puzzle of superconductivity, explaining in detail its mechanism and the associated effects. The  BCS theory, named after the three scientists, won Professor Cooper the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1972, which he shared with John Robert Schrieffer and his teacher, John Bardeen. Contents. Section 1: Historical Perspectives. The first section of the book describes important discoveries which led to the development of BCS theory. Section 2: Fluctuations, Tunneling and Disorder. The second section focuses on quantum phenomena which occur in superconductors. Section 3: New Superconductors. Section three of the book is on various experimental and theoretical methods used to identify new superconducting materials. Section 4: BCS Beyond Superconductivity. The final section of the  book is on the application of BCS theory beyond the field of superconductivity. Reception. John Swain writing for CERN Courier describes the book as a wonderful review of a powerful unifying concept which covers an enormous range of phenomena. Malcolm Beasley for Physics Today adds that the book will provide any person curious about superconductivity with something to enjoy. In addition, Jermey Matthews, the book editor from Physics Today, had chosen BCS: 50 years as one of the five books to put on your 2011 holiday wish list. Additional information. 13 papers from the book have been published concurrently as  a special issue of the International Journal of Modern Physics B.