Unruly plasmas: Researchers challenge Bohr-van Leeuwen theorem
Wednesday, August 7, 2013 - 08:01
in Physics & Chemistry
Scientists of the universities in Düsseldorf and Kiel have obtained a surprising result that appears to be in conflict with standard text book knowledge. According to the fundamental Bohr-van Leeuwen theorem, the state of a classical many-particle system cannot be altered by turning on a magnetic field: in particular, a liquid will remain a liquid and a crystal will remain a crystal. In an article published in the current issue of the journal Physical Review Letters Dr. Torben Ott, Professor Michael Bonitz (Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel) und Professor Hartmut Löwen (Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf) demonstrate, that this theorem can be "tricked".