Research paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.12008
this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2023
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Long-distance energy transfer without energy loss will make it possible to connect more energy grids and sources together, so stuff like the saharan desert providing solar power to Europe, for example, suddenly becomes feasible. Maglev trains will no longer require lots of power to run, since they could utilize superconductor magnetic levitation. You could make super-efficient processors that wouldn’t really heat up at all. Superconductors are also key to quantum computers, so expect lots of advancements in that field as well. They will also make it much easier to build and run fusion power experiments.
Lots of tech in general would benefit from this discovery, stuff like MRIs, electric vehicles, space telescopes or particle accelerators would become way more efficient, cheaper and easier to produce.
Edit: also, check out this video by Isaac Arthur for some more sci-fi examples of what this tech can be used for in the future (discussed in the second half). It’s more space-colonization-focused and kinda like a thought experiment, but interesting nonetheless.
God damn this sounds exciting... But also like 100 years away 🙁
Not really. If that turns out to be true (nothing is guaranteed yet), the processes described are pretty straightforward and don’t require any super-advanced tech to be reproduced. Full-scale production could be rolled out in mere years. That would become beneficial for stuff like MRIs or electric cars as soon as production starts.
After that, my guess would be that some large-scale energy infrastructure projects, for example, could be completed in about a decade.
I hope you are right
Does this get us hovering without rails? Could we theoretically generate a magnetic field strong enough to repulse the earth? Or is that still Science Fiction?
You still need a magnet-superconductor pair for quantum locking and magnetic levitation. This is called the Meissner effect and it seems like it has been confirmed for this material. Here’s a video showing an example of such a system.
Before, the best way to scale this up might’ve been to make permanent magnet rails and run a superconductor train along those rails, but that would have been totally infeasible and inapplicable in real life, since building rails out of permanent magnets is expensive and dangerous, and the train would need to house a really large superconductor chilled to liquid nitrogen temperatures. You couldn’t have built a track out of superconductors irl because good luck keeping those at the temperatures required for superconductivity to kick in.
If this material turns out to actually work as claimed and to be producible at scale, you can switch those and make an electromagnetic train that travels along superconductor tracks. Which is way easier, cheaper and much more doable in general.
But the earth’s magnetic field is extremely weak, and even the tiniest pieces of superconductors are unable to lock with it. So no, it does not allow for trackless levitation.
But a cool new train system design becomes possible though!
Superconducter maglevs are feasible and have been in service for years. They are building a large line in Japan.
You're right, haven't heard about that one. They actually do use superconducting magnets on a train that runs along a magnetic track.
But I feel like my feasibility comment still stands. It seems like all they had built is a 18km test track, and there's some info about extending it to 48 km, but it doesn't seem like the extended part uses superconducting tech yet, it only mentions regular maglev. The Tokyo — Osaka line is planned for 2037. So yeah, its technically possible, but it's not like you can cover Europe or the US with this type of track for any sensible amount of money.
That's the cool part about room temperature superconductors, they make this type of tech possible on much larger scales.
It sounds like the full line will eventually go across most of Japan and operate in the same way as the test track, however it is expected to be very expensive, and room temperature superconductors would likely lower the cost.
I've seen that video so many times, but it never stops looking fake.
Superconducting materials will expel an induced magnetic field as it creates internal fields that exactly cancel out the induced one. You'd still need some sort of "rails" to created the induced field and to move it to generate forward motion.
That is for the Meissner effect I think. I guess what I was thinking is to use the SC to create an incrediblely strong electromagnet to repel the Earth's magnetic field. But it looks like we are orders of magnitude away from that
The earth's magnetic field is so weak that you'd be repelling something the mass of a compass needle.
I'm most excited for fusion power generation. Currently we can ignite a fusion reaction but it takes more energy to control and contain it than you get back because it takes a huge amount of electricity to generate a magnetic field strong enough to contain the plasma. The strength of the magnetic field is proportional to the current flow, which is limited by how much cooling is required to maintain superconductivity. Without cooling taking a huge chunk of the power created by the fusion reaction we could net positive energy from the reaction and finally have a clean source of scalable nuclear power.
Yeah it is really neat. Especially since we are ostensibly close to net positive energy in some of the experimental reactors already.
If they can be made into wires (or close to them) you can create things like lossless electricity transmission, lossless batteries, electronics without heat generation (or very low), etc. Transmission lines would likely still need some sort of cooling but at room temp it would be a lot less than for the current superconductors that require at least liquid nitrogen.
What kind of magnetic fields would be induced with superconducting wires/rails carrying an AC current? Or is there even any reason to use AC with superconductive transmission?
Those ultra fast and efficient trains required superconducting rails IIRC (which I think indicates strong magnetic field because they used magnets to levitate so that the only friction involved came from air). I wonder if we could combine the trains with transmission and basically have trains that use the power mains to get from A to B.
If we had a practical room temperature/pressure superconductor its kind of hard to overstate how amazing that would be. Its the kind of thing that normally gets put in the same category as faster than light travel in terms of all the amazing stuff you could do with it.
I'm not entirely sure about the practical applications, but my gut feeling tells my it's hella cool.
No. Just no. C is good enough. I'm not buying anymore fucking cables.
Well for one, we're running out of helium and fast. Helium is used to super cool existing superconductors, like those used in MRI machines.
And then there's the power transmission benefits. Right now we're wasting upwards of 5% of the electricity we generate.
What do you mean by wasting if it's referring to transmission losses that's closer to 3-6% not 50%
Ah hell I meant to type 5% and actually typed 50. I got that number here: https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=105&t=3
Ok fair enough