How to map a pseudogap?

Abstract

A pseudogap (PG) is believed to be responsible for the non Fermi-liquid normal state of cuprate superconductors. In particular, field induced PG collapse causes negative longitudinal magnetoresistance (MR), for details, see V.N. Zavaritsky, M. Springford, A.S. Alexandrov, cond-mat/0006089; cond-mat/0011192. The PG collapses because of spin-splitting of the polaron band while the orbital effects are irrelevant. Recently these conclusions, including the Zeeman relation, $k_BT^*=gB_{pg}$, which couples the PG temperature, $T^*$, and the PG closing field, $B_{pg}$, were reaffirmed by T. Shibauchi {\it et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 86}, 5763 (2001). It will demonstrate that the article by T. Shibauchi {\it et al.} lacks consistency and its conclusions are based on fallacious propositions and unsupported by the authors' own experimental results.