This thesis makes significant advances towards an understanding of superconductivity in the cuprate family of unconventional, high-temperature superconductors. Even though the high-temperature superconductors were discovered over 35 years ago, there is not yet a general consensus on an acceptable theory of superconductivity in these materials. One of the early proposals suggested that collective magnetic excitations of the conduction electrons could lead them to form pairs, which in turn condense to form the superconducting state at a critical temperature Tc. Quantitative calculations of Tc...

This thesis makes significant advances towards an understanding of superconductivity in the cuprate family of unconventional, high-temperature superconductors. Even though the high-temperature superconductors were discovered over 35 years ago, there is not yet a general consensus on an acceptable theory of superconductivity in these materials. One of the early proposals suggested that collective magnetic excitations of the conduction electrons could lead them to form pairs, which in turn condense to form the superconducting state at a critical temperature Tc. Quantitative calculations of Tc...