Strong correlation, electron-phonon interaction and critical fluctuations: Isotope effect, pseudogap formation, and phase diagram of the cuprates

Within the Hubbard-Holstein model with long-range Coulomb forces, we revisit the charge-ordering scenario for the superconducting cuprates and account for the presence or the absence of a formed stripe phase in different classes of cuprates. We also evaluate the mean-field and the fluctuation-corrected critical lines for charge ordering and we relate them with the various pseudogap crossover lines occurring in the cuprates and we discuss a mechanism for their peculiar isotopic dependence. Considering the dynamical nature of the charge-ordering transition, we explain the spread of T* and of its isotopic shift, obtained with experimental probes with different characteristic time scales.