Editing High-temperature superconductivity (section)

=== Spin-fluctuation mechanism ===
The lack of exact theoretical computations on such strongly interacting electron systems has complicated attempts to validate spin-fluctuation. However, most theoretical calculations, including phenomenological and diagrammatic approaches, converge on magnetic fluctuations as the pairing mechanism. 

==== Qualitative explanation ====
In a superconductor, the flow of electrons cannot be resolved into individual electrons, but instead consists of pairs of bound electrons, called Cooper pairs. In conventional superconductors, these pairs are formed when an electron moving through the material distorts the surrounding crystal lattice, which attracts another electron and forms a bound pair. This is sometimes called the "water bed" effect. Each Cooper pair requires a certain minimum energy to be displaced, and if the thermal fluctuations in the crystal lattice are smaller than this energy the pair can flow without dissipating energy. Electron flow without resistance is superconductivity.

In a high-{{mvar|T}}<sub>c</sub> superconductor, the mechanism is extremely similar to a conventional superconductor, except that phonons play virtually no role, replaced by spin-density waves. Just as all known conventional superconductors are strong phonon systems, all known high-{{mvar|T}}<sub>c</sub> superconductors are strong spin-density wave systems, within close vicinity of a magnetic transition to, for example, an antiferromagnet. When an electron moves in a high-{{mvar|T}}<sub>c</sub> superconductor, its spin creates a spin-density wave around it. This spin-density wave in turn causes a nearby electron to fall into the spin depression created by the first electron (water-bed). When the system temperature is lowered, more spin density waves and Cooper pairs are created, eventually leading to superconductivity. High-{{mvar|T}}<sub>c</sub> systems are magnetic systems due to the Coulomb interaction, creating a strong Coulomb repulsion between electrons. This repulsion prevents pairing of the Cooper pairs on the same lattice site. Instead, pairing occurs at near-neighbor lattice sites. This is the so-called ''d''-wave pairing, where the pairing state has a node (zero) at the origin.