High Temperature Superconductivity - Magnetic Mechanisms

A brief history is offered concerning the relation of magnetism to superconductivity, and the possibility that magnetic correlations are responsible for certain types of superconductors. A central focus is on high temperature cuprate superconductivity and the important question of whether its d-wave pairing is caused by antiferromagnetic or singlet correlations. Connected with this question is the much debated relation of the pseudogap phase to the superconducting phase, and whether lattice degrees of freedom are relevant or not.