Thermodynamics of vortex lines in layered superconductors

TL;DR

This paper investigates the thermodynamics of vortex lines in layered superconductors using a string model, revealing how dissipation, inertia, and elasticity influence specific heat behavior, especially a $ oot T$ dependence under dissipation.

Contribution

It introduces a simple string model to analyze vortex thermodynamics in layered superconductors, highlighting the roles of dissipation, inertia, and elasticity in determining specific heat regimes.

Findings

In dissipation-dominated regimes, specific heat scales as $ oot T$.

The interplay of dissipation, inertia, and elasticity creates distinct thermodynamic behaviors.

The model applies to the dilute vortex limit with negligible interactions.

Abstract

We study the dissipative thermodynamics of vortex lines in layered superconductors within a simple string model in the dilute limit of negligible vortex interactions and compute the specific heat $C_v$ in presence of arbitrary dissipation. The interplay of dissipation, inertia and elasticity is shown to control the qualitative thermodynamical behavior and their relative amount determines two very distinct regimes for the specific heat. In the dissipation dominated case we find a behavior $C_v \sim \sqrt{T}$ for a large interval of temperature below $T_c$.