Cuprate Superconductivity — Mechanism Identification

The mechanism responsible for cuprate superconductivity has not been identified in the sense the claim requires. After nearly four decades of intensive research, the field possesses several well-developed theoretical frameworks — spin fluctuation models, RVB and related strongly-correlated electron theories, charge density wave coupling proposals — none of which has achieved sufficient community consensus, predictive completeness, or experimental confirmation to constitute identification. The 2015 Keimer et al. review formally acknowledged that no single theory accounts for all cuprate phenomenology, and that conclusion has not been overturned by subsequent work. The pressure state is FRAGMENTING: this is not fragmentation from diverging evidence across domains, but from genuine theoretical plurality — multiple frameworks that are each partially correct and none of which has been falsified or achieved consensus (BN-001). Quantum simulation of the Hubbard model (AT-001) is the clearest visible resolution path, though it has not yet been executed at a scale sufficient to settle the question.