BCS Theory

BCS theory, named for physicists John Bardeen, Leon Cooper and John Robert Schrieffer, is the first successful microscopic theory of conventional superconductivity, published in 1957. It explains how electrons, which normally repel one another, can form loosely bound pairs called Cooper pairs through interactions mediated by the crystal lattice, and how these paired electrons condense into a collective quantum state that flows without electrical resistance below a critical temperature. The three physicists shared the 1972 Nobel Prize in Physics for the theory, which remains the standard explanation for superconductivity in conventional, low-temperature superconductors.