Pinning of dynamic spin density wave fluctuations in the cuprate superconductors

We present a theory of the pinning of dynamic spin density wave (SDW) fluctuations in a d-wave superconductor by local imperfections which preserve spin-rotation invariance, such as impurities or vortex cores. The pinning leads to static spatial modulations in spin-singlet observables, while the SDW correlations remain dynamic: these are the ‘Friedel oscillations’ of a spin-gap antiferromagnet. We connect the spectrum of these modulations as observed by scanning tunnelling microscopy to the dynamic spin structure factor measured by inelastic neutron scattering.