Do We Need (or Want) a Bosonic Glue to Pair Electrons in Hiigh Tc Superconductors?

TL;DR

This paper critically examines the concept of a bosonic glue in high Tc superconductors, arguing that the boson exchange picture lacks rigorous basis and highlighting alternative mechanisms for electron pairing.

Contribution

It challenges the conventional bosonic glue hypothesis and discusses how different superconductors evade Coulomb repulsion to achieve pairing.

Findings

Boson exchange is a folklore, not a rigorous theory.

Different superconductors use distinct mechanisms to evade Coulomb repulsion.

The paper questions the role of phonons and other bosons in high Tc pairing.

Abstract

Many investigators have joined the search for a bosonic glue which is hypothecated to be the mechanism which binds the electron pairs in the cuprate high Tc superconductors, often referring to the Eliashberg formalism which was developed to reveal the role of phonons in the conventional polyelectronic metal superconductors. In this paper we point out that the picture of boson exchange is a folklore description of the pairing process with no rigorous basis. The problem of pairing is always that of evading the strong Coulomb vertex, the repulsive core of the interaction; we discuss the different means by which the two types of superconductors accomplish this feat.