Magnetic field tuning of charge and spin order in the cuprate superconductors

Recent neutron scattering, nuclear magnetic resonance, and scanning tunneling microscopy experiments have yielded valuable new information on the interplay between charge and spin density wave order and superconductivity in the cuprate superconductors, by using an applied perpendicular magnetic field to tune the ground state properties. We compare the results of these experiments with the predictions of a theory which assumed that the ordinary superconductor was proximate to a quantum transition to a superconductor with co-existing spin/charge density wave order.