Dynamical layer decoupling in a stripe-ordered high-tc superconductor

In the stripe-ordered state of a strongly correlated two-dimensional electronic system, under a set of special circumstances, the superconducting condensate, like the magnetic order, can occur at a nonzero wave vector corresponding to a spatial period double that of the charge order. In this case, the Josephson coupling between near neighbor planes, especially in a crystal with the special structure of La2-xBaxCuO4, vanishes identically. We propose that this is the underlying cause of the dynamical decoupling of the layers recently observed in transport measurements at x=1/8.