DENSITY-OF-STATES-DRIVEN ANISOTROPIES INDUCED BY MOMENTUM DECOUPLING IN BI2SR2CACU2O8

Momentum decoupling arises when small-q scattering dominates the pairi ng interaction and implies density-of-states-driven anisotropies in su perconductivity. In this scheme we explain puzzling aspects of the ani sotropy in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8, such as the correlation of gap magnitude and visibility of the dip above the gap, the enhancement of anisotropy wi th temperature, the presence of gap minima away from the Gamma-X direc tion and a gap maximum in the Gamma-X direction, the similarity of tun nel and angle-resolved photoemission spectra in the Gamma-(M) over bar direction, and the asymmetry in vacuum tunnel spectra where the dip s tructure is present only at negative sample bias.