We review the recent developments in the field of cuprate superconductors
with the special focus on the recently observed charge order in the underdoped
compounds. We introduce new theoretical developments following the study of the
antiferromagnetic (AF) quantum critical point (QCP) in two dimensions, in which
preemptive orders in the charge and superconducting (SC) sectors emerged, that
are in turn related by an SU(2) symmetry. We consider the implications of this
proliferation of orders in the underdoped region, and provide a study of the
type of fluctuations which characterize the SU(2) symmetry. We identify an
intermediate energy scale where the SU(2) pairing fluctuations are dominant and
argue that they are unstable towards the formation of a Resonant Peierls
Excitonic (RPE) state at the pseudogap (PG) temperature T∗. We discuss the
implications of this scenario for a few key experiments.Comment: 16 pages, 17 figure