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High-temperature superconductors as ionic metals

High-temperature superconductors are reviewed in light of the fact that their binding energy is ionic. The conducting electrons are dominated by the much larger energy scales coming from ligand Coulomb integrals, including the out-of-plane ones, which are responsible for the Fermi arcs. The historic reinterpretation of Hund's rule from an intraelectronic to a central mean-field effect is applied to compare the cuprates to the pnictides. It is argued that the cuprates conform to the now-standard central-field paradigm, while the generally abandoned intraelectronic mechanism is exceptionally applicable to the pnictides. A non-adiabatic Fermi liquid paradigm is inferred from the phenomenological evidence. Glueless superconductivity is interpreted as the limiting case of Cooper-pair scattering in cuprates when the Cu ion is perfectly rigid.