The pseudogap phenomenology is one of the enigmas of the physics of high-Tc superconductors.
Many members of the cuprate family have now been experimentally characterized with high resolution in both real and momentum space, which revealed highly anisotropic Fermi arcs and local
domains which break rotational symmetry in the CuO2 plane at the intraunit cell level. While
most theoretical approaches to date have focused on the role of electronic correlations and dopinginduced disorder to explain these features, we show that many features of the pseudogap phase
can be reproduced by considering the interplay between electronic and nonlinear electron-phonon
interactions within a model of fluctuating Cu-O-Cu bonds. Remarkably, we find that electronic
segregation arises naturally without the need to explicitly include disorder. Our approach points
not only to the key role played by the oxygen bond in the pseudogap phase, but opens different
directions to explore how nonequilibrium lattice excitations can be used to control the properties of
the pseudogap phase.This work has been supported by the Spanish Ministry
MINECO (National Plan 15 Grant: FISICATEAMO
No. FIS2016-79508-P, SEVERO OCHOA No. SEV2015-0522, FPI), European Social Fund, Fundacio Cellex, Generalitat de Catalunya (AGAUR Grant No. 2017 SGR
1341 and CERCA/Program), EU FEDER, ERC AdG
OSYRIS and NOQIA, ERC StG SEESUPER, EU FETPRO QUIC, and the National Science Centre, PolandSymfonia Grant No. 2016/20/W/ST4/00314. A.D. was
financed by a Juan de la Cierva fellowship (IJCI-2017-
33180). R.W.C. acknowledges funding from the Polish National Center via Miniatura-2 Program Grant No.
2018/02/X/ST3/01718.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft
