Mixed vortex-antivortex solutions of Ginzburg-Landau equations (Q1912924)

One studies the existence of non-minimizing solutions to the Ginzburg-Landau equation \[ \Delta U_\varepsilon+ \varepsilon^{- 2} U_\varepsilon(1- |U_\varepsilon|^2)= 0\quad \text{in }\Omega,\quad \varepsilon> 0,\quad U_\varepsilon= g\quad \text{on }\Omega. \] Mixed vortex-antivortex solutions have been obtained for special domains \(\Omega\), and here, one shows that this result remains true for general smooth \(\Omega\), provided that the solution satisfies some energy bounds. The proof is intricate and involves two main steps. The first one is related to the gap phenomenon, and the second one uses the heat-flow method. The derivation of the main result works via estimates of the renormalized energy.