2015 Joint UK-Japan Workshop on Physics and Applications of Superconductivity

2013年是英国和日本之间建立贸易、科学、文化和外交关系400周年，2011年是海克·卡梅林·昂尼斯发现超导体100周年。几十年来，英国和日本都在超导物理和应用领域建立了世界领先的研究小组。然而，仅在近年来，例如，长长度的高质量带状高温超导（HTS）材料已经可用，其显示出当前对于有意义的实际应用最有希望。物理学和材料科学的其他领域也在不断发展，近年来开发出了二硼化镁（MgB 2）和磷属铁族化合物等新型超导体。由于材料的复杂性，基础研究仍然需要，而应用研究可以从新超导体的发现中受益匪浅，这些新超导体可以提供对现有材料的改进。物理学和工程学在这一领域有着密切的互补关系，许多物理学家现在从事超导材料工程和应用超导。日本在过去几十年中在超导研究方面的努力尤其如此，这也使其成为研讨会的自然主题。尽管已经取得了大量的进展，但关于超导的基本物理机制仍有许多未解之谜--例如，高温超导的完整理论仍难以证明。为了开发超导的实际的、真实的世界应用，应用研究也是必要的。例如，仅在电气工程领域，预期的改进的性能和效率以及更小的尺寸和重量，已经看到在电机和其他电力应用（例如变压器和电缆）中使用这些材料的很大兴趣。超导体也被用于量子计算领域-例如，目前销售的唯一一台量子计算机使用超导通量量子比特，并在量子光子学中作为单光子探测器。研讨会将由资深学者的较长演讲和早期职业研究人员和学生的较短演讲组成，涵盖广泛的主题，从解释超导性的基础物理到新超导材料的开发和预测，再到实用和商业上可行的超导装置的设计。汇集了来自英国和日本的超导物理学和应用的世界领先研究人员的临界质量将提供一个完美的平台，以鼓励思想交流和科学讨论，并允许研究人员之间形成正式和非正式的国际合作。现在是将两国的主要研究人员聚集在一起进行多学科研讨会的最佳时机，以讨论当前的最新技术和问题，并帮助指导这些高度互补领域的未来研究方向。

2013 was the 400th anniversary of the opening of trade, scientific, cultural and diplomatic ties between the UK and Japan, and 2011 was the 100th anniversary of the discovery of superconductivity by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes. Both the UK and Japan have developed world-leading research groups in the fields of the physics and applications of superconductivity over a number of decades. However, it is only in recent years, for example, that long lengths of high-quality tape high temperature superconducting (HTS) materials, which show the most promise currently for meaning practical applications, have been available. There are also continuing developments in other areas of physics and materials science, too, which have led to the development in recent years of new superconductors, such as magnesium diboride (MgB2) and the iron pnictides.Fundamental research is still required because of the complexity of the materials, and applications research can benefit greatly from the discovery of new superconductors that offer improvements over existing materials. There is a close and complementary relationship between physics and engineering in this field, with many physicists now working in superconducting materials engineering and applied superconductivity. This is particularly true of the effort in superconductivity research in Japan over the past couple of decades, and makes this a natural theme for the workshop. Although a great number of developments have already taken place, there are still many unanswered questions regarding the underlying physical mechanisms of superconductivity - a complete theory is still proving elusive for high temperature superconductivity, for example.Applied research is also necessary to develop practical, real world applications of superconductivity. In the field of electrical engineering alone, for example, the expected improved performance and efficiency, as well as smaller size and weight, has seen much interest in using these materials in electric machines and other electric power applications such as transformers and cables. Superconductors are also being used in the field of quantum computing - for example, the only quantum computer currently on sale uses superconducting flux qubits and in quantum photonics as single photon detectors.The workshop will be comprised of longer contributed talks by senior academics and shorter contributed talks by early career researchers and students, and cover a wide range of themes, ranging from the underlying physics that explains superconductivity to the development and prediction of new superconducting materials to the design of practical and commercially viable superconducting devices. Bringing together a critical mass of world-leading researchers of the physics and applications of superconductivity from the UK and Japan will provide the perfect platform to encourage exchange of ideas and scientific discussions and allow the formation of formal and informal international collaborations between researchers. It is now the perfect time to bring together leading researchers from the two countries for a multidisciplinary workshop to discuss the current state-of-the-art and problems, and to help guide the future direction of research in these highly complementary fields.