Muons as Local Probes of Three-body Correlations in the Mixed State of Type-II Superconductors

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that muon-spin rotation measurements can effectively probe three-body correlations in the vortex glass state of type-II superconductors, providing microscopic insights into their local order.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to measure three-body correlations in vortex glasses using muon-spin rotation, supported by simulations and analytic calculations.

Findings

Muon-spin rotation reveals non-trivial three-body correlations.

The method offers microscopic insight into vortex glass order.

Supports a theoretical framework for correlations in glassy systems.

Abstract

The vortex glass state formed by magnetic flux lines in a type-II superconductor is shown to possess non-trivial three-body correlations. While such correlations are usually difficult to measure in glassy systems, the magnetic fields associated with the flux vortices allow us to probe these via muon-spin rotation measurements of the local field distribution. We show via numerical simulations and analytic calculations that these observations provide detailed microscopic insight into the local order of the vortex glass and more generally validate a theoretical framework for correlations in glassy systems.