Vortex density models for superconductivity and superfluidity (Q1941081)

The paper studies certain limits of the Ginzburg-Landau model, which describe a superconducting object in an external magnetic field, and the Gross-Pitaevskii functional, which describes a Bose-Einstein condensate confined in a trap and subject to rotational forcing. The full physical problems are investigated for 3D superconductors and condensates. The leading-order first critical applied field is defined for superconductors characterized the same dichotomy as in the 2D case. A description is obtained in the supercritical case, of the limiting vortex density in terms of a constrained minimization problem solved by the magnetic field. Moreover, the corresponding results are established for vortices in Bose-Einstein condensate wave functions, that is, ground states of the Gross-Pitaevskii functional with rotational forcing. These results include the definition of the leading-order critical rotational velocity, and a characterization, in terms of a nonlocal generalization of an obstacle problem, of the limiting vortex density for rotations above this critical value. They are obtained from a study of certain functionals whose ground states characterize vortex density, and other associated quantities, in limits of sequences of minimizers of suitably scaled Ginzburg-Landau or Gross-Pitaevskii functionals. The obtained functionals are expressed as functionals of the limiting (rescaled) current. The energy-minimizing current, then is decomposed into the currents generated by the bulk vorticity, permanent currents (possible in a multiply-connected domain), and a potential flow (typically present for Bose-Einstein condensates and not for homogeneous superconductors). Mathematically, this corresponds to Hodge decompositions of the energy-minimizing current into harmonic curl and gradient parts. An advantage of the formulation in terms of currents consists in that it allows for a simple and unified treatment of domains of varying topological type. Finally, it is defined a useful analog of the contact curves (as normally defined for classical obstacle problems) for the variation problems with nonlocal constraints on the examples of Bose-Einstein condensates in the presence and absence of rotational symmetry.