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Significance Understanding the character of the enigmatic pseudogap phase is a fundamental problem in the physics of the cuprate superconductors. Key to this problem is identifying what types of order, if any, are associated with pseudogap. Here, we establish using resonant X-ray scattering that electronic nematicity—a rotational symmetry breaking of the electronic structure—is linked to the onset of the pseudogap phase in the cuprate La 1.6 − x Nd 0.4 Sr x CuO 4 (Nd-LSCO). We report vanishing of electronic nematicity either by raising the temperature through the onset of the pseudogap phase or by increasing hole doping through the pseudogap critical point, indicating that electronic nematic order is intimately tied to the pseudogap.

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