The pseudogap phase in high-temperature superconductors

Superconductivity at normal ambient conditions would be a major breakthrough. However, the best high-temperature superconductors, cuprates, only reach -130 °C so far. Some of their properties have so far been puzzling, including a so-called pseudogap phase at higher temperatures. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research were able to show that the Hubbard model, which is simple at its core, has such a phase. They succeeded in developing an analytical theory that can be understood intuitively. It can be used to calculate measured variables approximately.