d-Wave superconductivity as a catalyst for antiferromagnetism in underdoped cuprates

In underdoped high-Tc cuprates, d-wave superconductivity competes with antiferromagnetism. It has generally been accepted that suppressing superconductivity leads to the nucleation of spin-density wave (SDW) order with wavevector near (π, π). We show theoretically, for a d-wave superconductor in an applied magnetic field including disorder and electronic correlations, that the creation of SDW order is in fact not simply due to suppression of superconductivity, but rather due to a correlation-induced splitting of an electronic bound state arising from the sign change of the order parameter along quasiparticle trajectories. The induced SDW order is therefore a direct consequence of the d-wave symmetry. The formation of anti-phase domain walls proves to be crucial for explaining the heretofore puzzling temperature dependence of the induced magnetism as measured by neutron diffraction.