Symmetry of the charge density wave in cuprates

We derive and analyze an effective Ginzburg-Landau (GL) functional for a charge density wave for a model of electrons on a tight-binding square lattice with density-density interactions. We show, using realistic electronic dispersions for the cuprates, that for the simplest GL theory, the preferred symmetry is typically unidirectional (stripe) type, but inclusion of third-order terms tends to destabilize this in favor of a checkerboard pattern depending on the strength and range of the interaction. This is of interest given the recent observation of such charge order in underdoped YBa sub(2) Cu sub(3) O sub(6+x).