Persistence of superconductivity in thin shells beyond H_c₁

Abstract: In Ginzburg-Landau theory, a strong magnetic field is responsible for the breakdown of superconductivity. This work is concerned with the identification of the region where superconductivity persists, in a thin shell superconductor modeled by a compact surface

m a t h c a l M s u b s e t m a t h b b R^{3}

, as the intensity

h

of the external magnetic field is raised above

H_{c 1}

. Using a mean field reduction approach devised by Sandier and Serfaty as the Ginzburg-Landau parameter

k a p p a

goes to infinity, we are led to studying a two-sided obstacle problem. We show that superconductivity survives in a neighborhood of size

(H_{c 1} / h)^{1 / 3}

of the zero locus of the normal component

H

of the field. We also describe intermediate regimes, focusing first on a symmetric model problem. In the general case, we prove that a striking phenomenon we call freezing of the boundary takes place: one component of the superconductivity region is insensitive to small changes in the field.

Review text

The authors consider the Ginzburg-Landau functional \(G_{M,k} : H^1(M;\mathbb{C}) \to \mathbb{R}^+\), \(G_{M,k}(\psi)=\int_{M}^{}[|(\nabla_M-ihA)\psi|^2+\frac{k^2}{2}(|\psi|^2-1)^2]dH^2_M(x)\), where \(M\) is a compact surface homeomorphic to \(\mathbb{S}^2\), embedded in \(\mathbb{R}^3\), \(k,h > 0\), and \(A\) is a vector field on \(M\). More specifically, they consider the regime \(k\to +\infty\) when the function \(H\) defined via the relation \(H dH^2_M = dA\) (viewing \(A\) as a 1-form) changes sign (in a nondegenerate sense). It is known that there exists a first critical number \(H_c\sim C \ln k\) as \(k\to \infty\) for some \(C>0\) such that vortices appear in the minimizers when \(h\geq H_c\). Assuming that there exists \(b > 0\) such that \(\lim_{k\to \infty} \frac{\ln k}{h} = b\), they show that the region of persistence of superconductivity in the \(b \to 0\) limit is \(O(b^{1/3})\) close to the zero set of \(H\).

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