Pure quantum phenomena are characterized by intrinsic recurrences in space and time. We use this intrinsic periodicity as a quantization condition to derive a heuristic description of the essential quantum phenomenology of superconductivity. The resulting description is based on fundamental quantum dynamics and geometrical considerations, rather than on microscopical characteristics of the superconducting materials. This allows us to investigate the related gauge symmetry breaking in terms of the competition between quantum recurrence and thermal noise. We also test the validity of (...) this approach to describe the case of carbon nanotubes. (shrink)

Free bosonic fields are investigated at a classical level by imposing their characteristic de Broglie periodicities as constraints. In analogy with finite temperature field theory and with extra-dimensional field theories, this compactification naturally leads to a quantized energy spectrum. As a consequence of the relation between periodicity and energy arising from the de Broglie relation, the compactification must be regarded as dynamical and local. The theory, whose foundamental set-up is presented in this paper, turns out to be consistent with special (...) relativity and in particular respects causality. The non trivial classical dynamics of these periodic fields show remarkable overlaps with ordinary quantum field theory. This can be interpreted as a generalization of the AdS/CFT correspondence. (shrink)