Separated spin and charge degrees of freedom in high-T_c superconductors

Recent Nernst and interlayer transport experiments in Bi2Sr 2CaCu2O8+y (BSCCO) high temperature superconductors report hugely different limiting magnetic fields. We demonstrate that both fields convert to the same pseudogap energy scale T* upon transformation as orbital and Zeeman critical fields, respectively. We suggest a consistent interpretation of this finding based on separation of spin and charge degrees of freedom residing in different regions of a truncated Fermi surface. © World Scientific Publishing Company.