A Tribute to Bill Kruskal

Discussion of ``The William Kruskal Legacy: 1919--2005'' by Stephen E. Fienberg, Stephen M. Stigler and Judith M. Tanur [arXiv:0710.5063]Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/088342306000000358 the Statistical Science (http://www.imstat.org/sts/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Fermi Surfaces, Fermi Patches, and Fermi Arcs in High Tc Superconductors

A defining property of metals is the existence of a Fermi surface: for two dimensions, a continuous contour in momentum space which separates occupied from unoccupied states. In this paper, I discuss angle resolved photoemission data on the cuprate superconductor BSCCO and argue that it is not best thought of in this conventional picture. Rather, the data are consistent with ``patches'' of finite area connected by more conventional ``arcs''. Novel physics is associated with the patches, in that the states contained in a patch are dispersionless and thus interaction dominated. In the pseudogap phase, the patches are gapped out, leaving the Fermi arcs disconnected. This unusual situation may be the key to understanding the microscopic physics of the high temperature superconductors, in that the pairing correlations are strongest in the patches, yet the superfluid density lives only on the arcs.Comment: 6 pages, AIP Proceedings of the Univ. of Miami HTS99 conferenc

Compression springs used for vibration isolation

System that employs opposed pairs of compression springs can be totally compressed to provide a ''hard mount'' during component installation and adjustment, and can be released to a free-floating condition for vibration isolation during test