Experiments on underdoped cuprate superconductors suggest an intricate
relation between the normal-state Nernst effect and stripe order: The Nernst
signal appears enhanced near 1/8 hole doping and its onset temperature scales
with the stripe-ordering temperature over some range of doping. Here, we employ
a phenomenological quasiparticle model to calculate the normal state Nernst
signal in the presence of stripe order. We find that Fermi pockets caused by
translational symmetry breaking lead to a strongly enhanced Nernst signal with
a sign depending on the modulation period of the ordered state and other
details of the Fermi surface. This implies differences between
antiferromagnetic and charge-only stripes We compare our findings with recent
data from Nd-LSCO and YBCO.Comment: 16 pages, 14 figures, discussion of signal anisotropy included now;
some clarifications added to formulas and experimental implication
