Investigation on the Ground States of a Model Thin-Film Superconductor on a Sphere

Abstract

We consider the problem of finding the ground state of a model type-II superconductor on the two-dimensional surface of a sphere, penetrated by $N$ vortices. Numerical work shows the ground states to consist of a triangular network of the vortices with twelve five-coordinated centres. Values of $N$ are found with particularly low energy ground states, due to structures of high symmetry. The large $N$ limit is treated within elasticity theory to compare with the triangular vortex lattice that forms the ground state on an infinite flat plane. Together with numerical work this demonstrates that the thermodynamic limit $N\to \infty$ of the spherical system remains different from the flat plane due to the presence of twelve disclination defects.

11 pages, 2 encapsulated PostScript figures, uses RevTeX (with epsf)

References in corpus (5)

• Two-Dimensional Vortex Lattice Melting
• n-atic Order and Continuous Shape Changes of Deformable Surfaces of Genus Zero
• Correlations in Two-Dimensional Vortex Liquids
• Phase Diagrams for Deformable Toroidal and Spherical Surfaces with Intrinsic Orientational Order
• Monte Carlo Studies of the Two-Dimensional Vortex Liquid: Absence of Transition and Dynamical Properties

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Two-Dimensional Matter: Order, Curvature and Defects
• Interacting Topological Defects on Frozen Topographies
• Influence of Dislocations in Thomson's Problem
• Vortices in a Thin Film Superconductor with a Spherical Geometry
• Defect free global minima in Thomson's problem of charges on a sphere
• Elastic energy of polyhedral bilayer vesicles
• Minimal Bending Energies of Bilayer Polyhedra
• Non-integer flux quanta for a spherical superconductor
• Dislocation screening in crystals with spherical topology
• Disorder-induced topological superconductivity in a spherical quantum-Hall--superconductor hybrid