Global stability of the normal state of superconductors in the presence of a strong electric current (Q2510673)

The paper studies the global stability of the normal state of a superconductor at a strong electric current into the framework of the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau model (TDGL). First, the constitutive equations and main assumptions on the magnetic and electric properties are stated. The aim of the paper is to discuss the existence, uniqueness and regularity of solutions of the stated problem. To prove global long-time stability of the normal state as a solution of the problem for sufficiently large currents, it is considered the fully non-linear problem in a bounded domain. With this purpose, it is required to restrict the effect of non-linear terms, that are not necessary small at initial time moment, and also to take into account the effect of boundaries. The main theorem, formulated in the paper, allows one to deduce an upper bound for the critical current, where the normal state becomes globally stable. By this, a lower bound for this global stability current is the critical current for which the normal state becomes linearly unstable. The global existence and uniqueness of solutions are proved for the main problem and their regularity obtained. These results are found by subsequently considering stationary states, magnetic Laplacian on the base of maximum principle, spectral entity, gauge equivalence, weak solutions and finally the strong solution in the Coulomb gauge. Since the boundary is not smooth at the corners, corresponding discussion is performed. With this aim, some well-known elliptic-regularity results are present for domains with corners. It is shown, how to use these results for parabolic problems and they are applied to prove global existence, uniqueness and regularity for solutions of the main problem. Then the authors prove that if the current is strong enough, the magnetic field induces forces, associated with the main problem, to become asymptotically a contraction. With this aim the authors perform an analysis of a linearized problem (the semigroup associated with the problem is a contraction semigroup that follows from the Lumer-Phillips theorem) and obtain some asymptotics for different \(\kappa\)-limits. Then, it is proved that a proper bound on the resolvent of the elliptic operator in the main problem, linearized near state, obtained over a vertical line in the complex plane, guarantees global stability of the normal state. The above stability is proved in the large \(\kappa\)-limit for the system, scaled with respect to the penetration depth. Since the resolvent of the elliptic operator in an arbitrary domain is difficult to control, the authors provide an estimate of its norm for large values of fields, which can be applied for either large domains (with respect to the coherence length) or large values of \(\kappa\) for penetration depth scaling. It is shown, that its norm can be controlled using bounds derived from two approximate problems with constant current, defined in the 2D-case with Dirichlet boundary conditions. From the resolvent estimates, it is deduced an approximation of the critical current for which the normal state loses its local stability.