Physics Colloquium
OVERCOMING RESISTANCE WITH QUANTUM PERSISTENCE
Leonid Glazman
Abstract
Ironing a shirt boiling water in a teapot or reading under the light of incandescent bulb we know that electric current is pushed through a wire by voltage applied to its ends and that by forcing their way through a metal electrons do generate heat Yet quantum mechanics gives electrons an opportunity to flow without any dissipation and thus in the absence of accelerating electric field Being non dissipative such electric currents do not decay in time they are persistent All one needs to create such current