Fig. 1

Microscopic manifestation of nematic fluctuations. a Schematic phase diagram of hole-doped cuprate superconductors. b The microscopic model we use contains a Cu \(3d_{x^2 - y^2}\) orbital (center orbital) and O 2p_x and 2p_y orbitals in a single unit cell. The hopping parameters are given by t_pd, t_pp, and interactions are considered on-site U_dd, U_pp, and between nearest-neighbors V_pd, V_pp. c Simple illustration that nematic fluctuations induce a short-ranged magnetic stripe ordered region (light red) within a Néel ordered background (yellow). This snapshot is taken from our classical Monte-Carlo simulations. Red and blue color of the arrows denote out-of-the-plane components of the spins