Review of Poher experiment on fields produced by electric discharges in a superconductor

TL;DR

This paper reviews Poher's experiments on electric discharges in superconductors, analyzing observed effects and evaluating hypotheses involving vacuum fields and nitrogen boil-off as potential explanations.

Contribution

It critically examines experimental results and proposes models to explain the observed effects of high current discharges in superconductors.

Findings

Effects observed only with cold YBaCuO superconductors

No effects with warm YBaCuO or other materials

Proposed hypotheses include vacuum fields and nitrogen boil-off mechanisms

Abstract

High current through cold YBaCuO produced effects on the mounting and on remote piezoelectric detectors. The effects were not observed with warm YBaCuO or other cold or warm materials. Two hypotheses are evaluated for the direct mechanical forces: a hypothetical vacuum field, and a model in which boil off of liquid nitrogen acts as a thruster. Data from the remote detector are compared with data from Podkletnov. Properties of a field required to explain data with the remote detectors are described.