From Equations to Superconductors: Matter Under Pressure

When matter is pushed to extreme pressures, its behavior can defy intuition and open the door to remarkable phenomena. One striking case is hydrogen-rich compounds, where superconductivity emerges at unexpectedly high temperatures. While such systems are challenging to probe experimentally, advances in theory now allow us to predict their properties directly from equations, without relying on empirical rules. Beyond transition temperatures, these methods provide insight into coherence lengths, magnetic penetration depths, critical fields, and currents — quantities essential for understanding superconductivity.

In this Presidential Lecture, Ryotaro Arita will show how first-principles theory illuminates inaccessible regimes and guides the exploration of new superconductors under extreme conditions.