Abstract:
The cuprate high Tc superconductors exhibit a poorly understood pseudogap transition temperature which persists far above Tc, decreases as the material composition is doped to produce hole charge carriers, and traces a line across the temperature-doping phase diagram. We report a meta-analysis of all measurements of the pseudogap temperature in two prototypical cuprates, which reveals that the best known pseudogap line is one of a family of four lines. These lines all originate from a single point near one edge of the superconducting phase, and their slopes follow a quantized mathematical pattern. The pseudogap family suggests that the cuprates host a single mother phase and that the pseudogap lines, charge density wave order, and superconductivity are all subsidiary effects supported by the mother phase.
