Stability of RVB hole stripes in high-temperature superconductors

Indications of density-wave states in underdoped cuprates, coming from recent STM (scanning tunneling microscopy) and Hall-resistance measurements, have raised new concerns whether stripes could be stabilized in the superconducting phase of cuprate materials, even in the absence of antiferromagnetism. Here, we investigate this issue using state-of-the-art quantum Monte Carlo calculations of a $t-J$ model. In particular we consider the stability of unidirectional hole domains in a modulated superconducting background, by taking into account the effect of tetragonal-lattice distortions, next-nearest neighbor hopping and long-range Coulomb repulsion.