Towards a better understanding of superconductivity at high transition temperatures

We provide an overview over the following eleven contributions on superconductivity in copper-oxygen and iron-based compounds. The main objective of this volume is an improved general understanding of superconductivity at high transition temperatures. The key questions on the way towards understanding superconducting pairing beyond electron-phonon coupling are spelled out, and the present status of theoretical reasoning is summarized. The crucial experiments, their results and interrelations are discussed. The central result is that fluctuations of spin and charge contribute substantially to superconductivity and also to other ordering phenomena. Methodically, the simultaneous analysis of results obtained from different experimental techniques such as photoelectron spectroscopy and neutron scattering, on one and the same sample, turned out to be of pivotal importance