Superconducting Gap Nodal Surface and Fermi Surface: their partial overlap in cuprates

Abstract

Electron correlation in cuprates leads to a global constraint $\sum_{\bf k} \Delta_{\bf k} = 0$ on the gap function $\Delta_{\bf k}$ resulting in a gap nodal surface. We give physical arguments supported by numerical results and discuss some experimental results to argue that correlations also lead to a local constraint on charge fluctuations in ${\bf k}$-space close to the Fermi surface, which may result in a substantial overlap of the Fermi surface with the gap nodal surface.