The attraction between antiferromagnetic quantum vortices as origin of superconductivity in cuprates

We propose as key of superconductivity in (hole-doped) cuprates a novel excitation of magnetic origin, characteristic of two-dimensions and of purely quantum nature: the antiferromagnetic spin vortices. In this formalism the charge pairing arises from a Kosterlitz-Thouless-like attraction between such vortices centered on opposite Néel sub- lattices. This charge pairing induces also the spin pairing through the action of a gauge force generated by the no-double occupation constraint imposed in the t-J model of the CuO planes of the cuprates. Superconductivity arises from coherence of pairs of exci- tations describing Zhang-Rice singlets and it is not of standard BCS type. We show that many experimental features of the cuprates can find a natural explanation in this formalism.