The condensation energy and pseudogap energy scale of Bi:2212 from the electronic specific heat

From measurements of the electronic specific heat of three Bi2212 samples we show that the normal state pseudogap opens abruptly in the weakly overdoped region at p(crit) similar to 0.19 holes/CuO(2) and increases as Eg(p)/(k)B similar to 980(1-p/p(crit)) (K) at lower doping.. The condensation energy U(0) peaks strongly at p(crit) exhibiting strong BCS-like superconductivity (U(0)/gammaT(c)(2) similar to 0.28) for p > p(crit) and weak superconductivity below p(crit). We conclude that the pseudogap is a property of the normal state DOS and is not related to precursor superconducting fluctuations.