Simplicity will out: Novel experiment-based expression explains behavior of unconventional superconductors
(Phys.org)—Superconductivity – perhaps the leading example of emergent quantum behavior in matter – was discovered in 1911 but lacked theoretical explanation for almost five decades. In 1957, John Bardeen, Leon Cooper, and John Robert Schrieffer (BCS) developed a microscopic theory of superconductivity1 that came to be known as the BCS theory, which describes superconductivity as a microscopic effect caused by a condensation of Cooper pairs into a boson-like state. BCS theory explains the behavior of what are now known as conventional superconductors – metals for which phonons provide the recently controversial "pairing glue" that leads to the effective attractive quasiparticle interaction responsible for their superconductivity. (Phonons are quantized lattice vibrations, and quasiparticles are mobile electrons or holes in materials; both are quantized elementary excitations.)