The Zeno effect and an inter-layer pairing mechanism for high-temperature superconductivity in layered materials

Abstract

Quantum Zeno Effect (QZE) is the suppression of the inter-subspace transition by a relatively fast intra-subspace decoherence. Earlier, we had proposed a QZE-based mechanism for the temperature-dependent normal-state c-axis resistivity of the layered high-T_c cuprate superconductors in which the singleparticle inter-layer tunneling is blocked by the strong intra-layer decoherence (entanglement). We now argue that while the single-particle inter-layer tunneling is thus blocked, the tunneling of the bosonic BCS-like pairs must remain unblocked inasmuch as a BCS pairing condensate is an eigenstate of the pair annihilation operator. This pair tunneling stabilizes high-T_c superconductivity energetically.