Monte Carlo Studies of the Two-Dimensional Vortex Liquid: Absence of Transition and Dynamical Properties

TL;DR

This study uses Monte Carlo simulations to investigate the two-dimensional vortex liquid in type-II superconducting films, finding no evidence of a melting transition and characterizing the dynamical relaxation behavior.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed Monte Carlo analysis of vortex dynamics on a spherical surface, revealing the absence of a phase transition and elucidating relaxation mechanisms.

Findings

No melting transition observed

Correlation length increases as temperature decreases

Relaxation times follow Arrhenius behavior

Abstract

Monte Carlo simulations are performed to study the properties of type-II superconducting films in a magnetic field in which the vortices move in the two-dimensional geometry represented by the surface of a sphere. No numerical evidence is found for any melting transition, although the correlation length over which vortex crystalline order exists grows as the temperature is reduced. At low temperatures, the relaxation timescales are of an Arrhenius form which can be associated with the creation of dislocations of a size comparable to the correlation length.