The theory of superconductivity in the high-Tc cuprates

P. W. Anderson0-691-04365-5

This book is P. W. Anderson’s long-awaited full presentation of his theory of high-Tc superconductivity in the cuprates. He realized that this striking new phenomenon needed for its explanation not just a new mechanism or “gimmick” but a radical reworking of the electronic theory of metals, especially those of low dimension. The many fundamentally new ideas that are first fully presented here will require a rewriting of the textbooks of many-body theory, which may take decades. The book incorporates full discussions of the experimental situation in these complex materials, both the normal and the superconducting states. The latest advances are contained in a selection of re-and pre-prints of recent work by Anderson and collaborators.
The fundamental insight contained in the book is that the conditions for validity of the renormalized quasiparticle theory of metals (“Fermi Liquid Theory”) are much more restrictive than had been thought, and are not satisfied in the CuO2 planes of high-Tc materials (among, probably, many other examples). This requires a new state of matter to be invented, new transport theories, and new mechanisms for superconductivity. This book will supersede all theoretical discussions of superconductivity that are now available in book form.