  Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) is considered as the only
experimental tool from which the momentum distribution of both the
superconducting and pseudo-gap can be quantitatively derived. The binding
energy of the leading edge of the photoemission spectrum, usually called the
leading edge gap (LEG), is the model-independent quantity which can be measured
in the modern ARPES experiments with the very high accuracy--better than 1 meV.
This, however, may be useless as long as the relation between the LEG and the
real gap is unknown. We present a systematic study of the LEG as a function of
a number of physical and experimental parameters. The absolute gap values which
have been derived from the numerical simulation prove, for example that the
nodal direction in the underdoped Bi-2212 in superconducting state is really
the node--the gap is zero. The other consequences of the simulations are
discussed.
