Pairing in the spin sector

The nanometer-scale gap inhomogeneity revealed by recent STM images of BSCCO surface suggests that the ``gap coherence length'' is of that order. Thus a robust pairing gap can develop despite the poorly screened Coulomb interaction. This can be taken as an evidence that the pairing in high $T_c$ materials occurs primarily in the neutral (spin) sector. We provide theoretical support for this point of view.