How India debunked South Korea’s so-called superconductor-at-room-temp

A team of South Korean researchers claimed that they have successfully synthesised what could be the world’s first ambient-temperature superconductor, or a superconductor that can operate in room temperature and does not need to be cooled.

However, a team of Indian researchers, quickly disproved the South Koreans’ claims, stating that the material the team developed, LK-99, was not superconductive at all.

A breakthrough that will change how we see the world
On July 22nd, researchers from Korea University in Seoul made a groundbreaking announcement about the discovery of a “room-temperature superconductor,” which they named LK-99. They released a pair of preliminary papers, which have not yet undergone peer review. If their findings are accurate, it could mark one of the most significant physics discoveries in recent decades.

To put it in a very reductive manner , in metal-based circuits, resistance decreases gradually with decreasing temperature. A superconductor, on the other hand, demonstrates a unique property. It has a critical temperature, also known as the transition temperature, below which its resistance suddenly drops to zero. This abrupt loss of resistance allows electric current to flow through the superconductor without any hindrance, resulting in the phenomenon of superconductivity. This characteristic makes superconductors highly valuable for various applications in science and technology.

Considering its implications in supercomputing, AI, ML, EVs, and clean energy–practically all major fields that the tech industry is heavily invested in right now–this was a massive achievement that would put South Korea on top of the technological food chain for years to come.

The most reputable efforts have shown that the material referred to as LK-99 by Korean researchers does not exhibit superconductive properties at room temperatures.

Not repeatable
Since the publication of the papers, numerous laboratories worldwide have been making efforts to reproduce the findings. However, the most credible attempts so far have failed to demonstrate superconductivity in LK-99.

On July 31, researchers from the National Physical Laboratory of India shared their paper on arXiv, concluding that LK-99 does not exhibit superconductive properties. V.P.S. (Veerpal Singh) Awana, the chief scientist at the National Physical Laboratory, has been openly sharing the details of his team’s replication attempts on Facebook. He has posted images of the materials they produced and provided updates on his communication with Sukbae Lee, one of the Korean researchers of the team that put out the paper.

Awana expressed how his team worked tirelessly, even during the weekend, to swiftly recreate the results obtained by the Korean team: “This weekend was quite hectic for us… My team was very busy.”

The majority of experts hold doubts regarding the Korean researchers’ findings. Scientists globally are attempting to reproduce and validate the results.

More researchers failed to recreate LK-99 
On July 31, researchers from Beihang University in Beijing also released a paper on arXiv, which confirmed that LK-99 does not exhibit superconductivity.

On August 1, researchers from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China posted a video showcasing the magnetic levitation of an LK-99 sample. What makes this video noteworthy is that the sample appears to levitate at multiple angles, indicating that it possesses a perfect diamagnetic property—a rarer characteristic associated with superconductors—rather than just simple diamagnetism.

However, diamagnetism that diamagnetism is a common property found in many materials, including copper, as per Simon Clarke, a professor of chemistry at the University of Oxford. He highlights that this phenomenon is observed in various substances, and some experiments have been conducted using extremely high magnetic fields to achieve levitation of objects like strawberries or frogs. So, while diamagnetism is interesting and can cause levitation, it is not exclusive to superconductors like LK-99.

Since then, several other organisations have come out and claimed that their experiments have shown that LK-99 is not superconductive at ambient temperatures as the researchers claim.

The Korean Society of Superconductivity and Cryogenics has established a verification committee to assess the validity of the LK-99 discovery. According to a report by Yonhap News Agency on August 3, the Society has concluded that LK-99 is not a superconductor because it lacks the Meissner effect—a defining characteristic of superconducting materials that causes them to expel all external magnetic fields, leading to levitation in the presence of a magnetic field.

Several research institutions are actively attempting to replicate the findings, including Argonne National Laboratory in the US, the Center for Quantum Materials and Superconductivity at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, the Laboratory of Superconducting Materials and Applications at Korea University, and the Center for Novel States of Complex Materials Research at Seoul National University.

Theory will only take you so far
Theoretical researchers have also conducted calculations to explore the potential properties of the compound claimed to have been synthesized by Korean researchers.

While theoretical calculations can only suggest possibilities and cannot confirm superconductivity, calculations from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, Northwest University in Washington, Vienna University of Technology, King’s College London, and many other research groups have all indicated that LK-99 could theoretically exhibit superconductivity at room temperatures.

However, as Christopher Nolan showcased in Oppenheimer what the scientists at Project Manhattan had gone through, theory will only take you so far.

Experts like Awana have not given up hope though. He still believes that LK-99 is the best chance we have had yet of synthesising a superconductor, at this scale. Awana expressed his optimism about the potential for LK-99 to be a superconductor, but he also emphasized the need for patience. “My gut feeling is this: I am very hopeful this compound will be a superconductor. In a week or so, we will be able to say for sure,” he said.

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