Pseudogap and vortices in high-temperature superconductors

The origin of pseudogap is one of the most puzzling features of the high-temperature superconductors. There are two main scenarios: the first one assumes the presence of a hidden order competing or coexisting with superconductivity; within the framework of the second one the pseudogap is a precursor of the superconducting gap. In this paper we present some aspects of the hidden order pseudogap scenario. In particular, we discuss how the competing order modifies the structure of vortices in high-temperature superconductors. We demonstrate that the presence of the hidden order can explain some features of vortices observed in scanning tunneling microscopy experiments. (author)