We analyze the dynamical nearest-neighbor and next-nearest-neighbor spin correlations in the four-site and eight-site dynamical cluster approximation to the two-dimensional Hubbard model. Focusing on the robustness of these correlations at long imaginary times, we reveal enhanced ferromagnetic correlations on the lattice diagonal, consistent with the emergence of composite spin-1 moments at a temperature scale that essentially coincides with the pseudogap temperature $T^{*}$. We discuss these results in the context of the spin-freezing theory of unconventional superconductivity.

• Received 4 December 2019
• Revised 17 March 2020
• Accepted 19 March 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.2.023037

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Published by the American Physical Society