The dimensionality of critical fluctuations in high-temperature superconductors in zero applied magnetic field as studied by various methods is addressed here in the context of a recently proposed model for layer decoupling in which the layers become decoupled at the largest length scales first. The results are used to give a coherent picture of the critical behavior of fluctuations in high-temperature superconductors as studied by electronic transport experiments, by specific heat measurements, by Monte Carlo calculations, and by analytical treatments. © 1996 The American Physical Society.

• Received 4 March 1996

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.54.688