Is There Glue in Cuprate Superconductors?
Science: More than 20 years after the discovery of cuprate superconductors, physicists do not agree on what mechanism causes the loss of electrical resistance at temperatures as high as 160 K (known as Tc, the transition temperature). They do agree that electron pairs are crucial because they can form a condensate that flows without resistance, but the interaction that causes the pairs to form is disputed. Philip W. Andersen suggests in this week's Science that the bosonic glue most physicists believe is needed to explain the superconducting behavior is folklore rather than the result of scientific logic.
