Pairing in the Hubbard model: the Cu₅O₄ Cluster versus the Cu-O plane

We study the Cu_{5}O_{4} cluster by exact diagonalization of a three-band Hubbard model and show that bound electron or hole pairs are obtained at appropriate fillings, and produce superconducting flux quantisation. The results extend earlier cluster studies and illustrate a canonical transformation approach to pairing that we have developed recently for the full plane. The quasiparticles that in the many-body problem behave like Cooper pairs are W=0 pairs, that is, two-hole eigenstates of the Hubbard Hamiltonian with vanishing on-site repulsion. The cluster allows W=0 pairs of d symmetry, due to a spin fluctuation, and s symmetry, due to a charge fluctuation. Flux quantisation is shown to be a manifestation of symmetry properties that hold for clusters of arbitrary size.