We analyze the phase diagram of single and bi-layer cuprates using the gauge-field description of the t-J model. For
T>TBE the in-plane fermion-pairing order parameter
Δ∥ is eliminated by gauge field fluctuations, leading us to predict the absence of a spin-gap phase in single-layer cuprates. For bi-layer cuprates the inter-layer order parameter
Δ⊥ is enhanced by spin correlations, and is less affected by gauge fluctuations. We believe that the spin gap in bi-layer materials is due to inter-layer fermion pairing, and that for these underdoped samples the superconducting gap may be nodeless.
The pseudogap in the cuprate high-temperature superconductors was discovered as a suppression of the Knight shift and spin relaxation time measured in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments. However, theoretical understanding of this suppression in terms of the magnetic susceptiblility of correlated itinerant fermion systems was so far lacking. Here we study the temperature and doping evolution of these quantities on the two-dimensional Hubbard model using cluster dynamical mean field theory. We recover the suppression of the Knight shift and the linear-in-T spin echo decay that increases with doping. The relaxation rate shows a marked increase as T is lowered but no indication of a pseudogap on the Cu site, and a clear downturn on the O site, consistent with experimental results on single layer materials but different from double layer materials. The consistency of these results with experiment suggests that the pseudogap is well described by strong short-range correlation effects.