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A Two Energy Gap Preformed-Pair Scenario For the Cuprates: Implications for Angle-Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy

We show how, within a preformed pair scenario for the cuprate pseudogap, the nodal and antinodal responses in angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy necessarily have very different temperature $T$ dependences. We examine the behavior and the contrasting $T$ dependences for a range of temperatures both below and above $T_c$. Our calculations are based on a fully microscopic $T$-matrix approach for addressing pairing correlations in a regime where the attraction is stronger than BCS and the coherence length is anomalously short. Previously, the distinct nodal and anti-nodal responses have provided strong support for the "two-gap scenario" of the cuprates in which the pseudogap competes with superconductivity. Instead, our theory supports a picture in which the pseudogap derives from pairing correlations, identifying the two gap components with non-condensed and condensed pairs. It leads to reasonably good agreement with a range of different experiments in the moderately underdoped regime and we emphasize that here there is no explicit curve fitting. Ours is a microscopic rather than a phenomenological theory. We briefly address the more heavily underdoped regime in which the behavior is more complex.