Existence of a room-temperature superconductor at ambient pressure

Determine whether there exists, at ambient pressure, a superconducting material whose superconducting critical temperature (Tc) is at or above room temperature.

Background

The discovery of a superconductor that operates at or above room temperature without applied pressure would have transformative impact across energy, computing, transportation, medicine, and fundamental physics. Despite extensive research, most known superconductors exhibit low critical temperatures near 0 K, and the identification of high-Tc candidates remains challenging.

While BCS theory explains conventional low-temperature superconductivity, no complete microscopic theory of high-Tc superconductivity currently exists, leaving the search for such materials largely empirical. The vastness of chemical space further complicates systematic discovery, motivating data-driven strategies such as the machine learning approach developed in this paper.