Through daily observations, we’ve each developed an intuitive sense that all substances have characteristic physical properties which are independent of size. For example, one ordinarily expects that the intrinsic ability of a material to conduct heat or electrical current will not change with its physical dimensions. But intrinsic properties such as the thermal and electrical conductivities fail to maintain this expected invariance when materials are reduced to length scales over which the physics is actually determined. To illustrate, the resistance of a small conductor at low temperatures is determined by the precise number and spatial configuration of electron scatterers present. In this regime, electrons can maintain phase coherence in traversing the sample and the configuration of scatterers is reflected in a unique resistance “fingerprint”. It is in the relatively new field given the name mesoscopic physics, that we explore condensed matter systems in a regime where the boundries of a sample and its size play a central role in determining the physics it manifests.

The main idea behind the CAS research project was to invite key specialists in mesoscopic physics to Norway who should have the possibility to work and cooperate under favourable conditions to produce scientific output. The particular goal was to draw attention of Norwegian research communities to mesoscopic physics and to organise future collaboration with Norwegian researchers. This seemed to be specifically important in connection with general perspectives of Norwegian physics research including already running research programs on micro- and nano-technology, and planned future programs on nano-scale materials and quantum computations.

The participants have all expressed their satisfaction with the activities at CAS during the project. The scientific activities have functioned in a smooth and natural way. The results of the research followed as a natural consequence of the cooperation in the group. The main reason of the apparent success of the project is that we have been able to gather a group of extremely competent physicists who have all been eager to collaborate with each other and with young scientists, as well as to contribute to other activities. A friendly environment for informal discussions was a key feature of the group.

To conclude, the main idea was a definite success, but unfortunately, it did not draw as much attention from Norwegian researcher outside of the CAS project as we hoped for. Information regarding our activities was sufficiently distributed, but attendance by local researchers was low. But the expert participants of the research group have expressed their agreement to visit Norway again if invited for consulting. I hope that such consulting will be primarily important if the Norwegian authorities will give the field a push, and a mesoscopic physics community will emerge in Norway.