Condensation energy and high-(formula presented) superconductivity

From an analysis of the specific heat of one of the cuprate superconductors it is shown that even if a large part of the experimental specific heat associated with the superconducting phase transition is due to fluctuations, this part must be counted when one tries to extract the condensation energy, (formula presented) from the data. Previous work where the fluctuation part was subtracted has resulted in an incorrect estimation of (formula presented). © 2002 The American Physical Society.