Order parameter in electron systems: its fluctuations and oscillations

Abstract

The concept of the order parameter is extremely useful in physics. Here, I discuss extensions of this concept to cases when the order parameter is no longer a constant but fluctuates or oscillates in space and time. This allows one to describe in an unified manner diverse physical phenomena including coexisting superconductivity and insulators in (quasi)one-dimensional systems, superconductivity and Coulomb blockade in granular superconductors and Josephson networks, Anderson localization and mesoscopic effects in disordered and chaotic systems, and thermodynamic quantum time-space crystals.