On the applicability of the layered sine-Gordon model for Josephson-coupled high-T_c layered superconductors

TL;DR

This paper investigates the layered sine-Gordon model's relevance to high-temperature superconductors by mapping it to topological excitations, comparing it with the layered vortex gas, and analyzing their universality classes.

Contribution

It provides a detailed mapping of the layered sine-Gordon model to topological excitations and compares its critical behavior with the layered vortex gas, questioning their universality.

Findings

Layered sine-Gordon model maps to a gas of topological excitations.

Layered sine-Gordon and layered vortex gas models belong to different universality classes.

Critical temperature determined via renormalization-group analysis.

Abstract

We find a mapping of the layered sine-Gordon model to an equivalent gas of topological excitations and determine the long-range interaction potentials of the topological defects. This enables us to make a detailed comparison to the so-called layered vortex gas, which can be obtained from the layered Ginzburg-Landau model. The layered sine-Gordon model has been proposed in the literature as a candidate field-theoretical model for Josephson-coupled high-T_c superconductors, and the implications of our analysis for the applicability of the layered sine-Gordon model to high-T_c superconductors are discussed. We are led to the conjecture that the layered sine--Gordon and the layered vortex gas models belong to different universality classes. The determination of the critical temperature of the layered sine-Gordon model is based on a renormalization-group analysis.