Determinant quantum Monte Carlo study of the enhancement of d-wave pairing by charge inhomogeneity

Striped phases, in which spin, charge, and pairing correlations vary inhomogeneously in the CuO ₂ planes, are a known experimental feature of cuprate superconductors, and are also found in a variety of numerical treatments of the two-dimensional Hubbard Hamiltonian. In this paper, we use determinant quantum Monte Carlo to show that if a stripe density pattern is imposed on the model, the d-wave pairing vertex is significantly enhanced. We attribute this enhancement to an increase in antiferromagnetic order which is caused by the appearance of more nearly half-filled regions when the doped holes are confined to the stripes. We also observe a π-phase shift in the magnetic order.