Superconducting fluctuations in non-superconductors: a reinterpretation of an experiment
Dr. Yaotian Fu (host Seidel), Department of Physics, Washington University in Saint Louis
Copper is generally considered to be a non-superconductor. In an experiment by Levy et al. who observed the magnetic response of 10,000,000 isolated copper rings at low temperatures, it was found that the total magnetization oscillated periodically with a period=half a flux quantum. The authors attributed their findings to some mesoscopic effect. We suggest that what they were seeing could be the result of superconducting fluctuations in copper above Tc.