New Developments in the Theory of HTSC

The superconductor is supposed to consist of alternating layers of two kinds: (1) layers with an attractive electron interaction and an effective mass of usual magnitude, (2) layers without interaction and with a large effective mass. The overlap between the layers is assumed to be small, its energy, t, being much less than {Delta}. It is shown, that such a model explains the most peculiar property found in experiments on electronic Raman light scattering in BSCCO 2212: different threshold values for the Raman satellite measured at two different polarizations of the incident and scattered light. The tunneling conductance G(V) = dJ/dV is analyzed for the same model. In order to fit the qualitative features of experimental data, it is assumed that the tunneling probability to the normal layers is much less, than to the superconducting layers. The conductance is calculated for the case t {much_lt} {Delta}. A brief analysis is given for the case t {approximately} {Delta}, which proves that such an assumption definitely contradicts the experimental data for BSCCO. The possible nature of the electronic states in the normal layers is discussed. In connection with the experimental discovery (angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy, ARPES) of the extended saddle point singularities in the electron spectrum of a variety of HTSC consequences are derived for T{sub c} and {Delta} in a simple model. A large enhancement of superconductivity is possible if the singularity has a sufficient extension and is located close to the Fermi energy. In order to explain the anisotropy of the energy gap, observed in ARPES experiments, on the basis of the {open_quotes}extended saddle point singularities{close_quotes} an assumption is done that the Coulomb interactions are weakly screened, i.e. the Debye screening radius is much larger than the lattice period; this makes the electron interaction long ranged (E-L model).