1 research outputs found
Disorder Driven Melting of the Vortex Line Lattice
We use Monte Carlo simulations of the 3D uniformly frustrated XY model, with
uncorrelated quenched randomness in the in-plane couplings, to model the effect
of random point pins on the vortex line phases of a type II superconductor. We
map out the phase diagram as a function of temperature T and randomness
strength p for fixed applied magnetic field. We find that, as p increases to a
critical value p_c, the first order vortex lattice melting line turns parallel
to the T axis, and continues smoothly down to low temperature, rather than
ending at a critical point. The entropy jump across this line at p_c vanishes,
but the transition remains first order. Above this disorder driven transition
line, we find that the helicity modulus parallel to the applied field vanishes,
and so no true phase coherent vortex glass exists.Comment: 4 pages, 6 eps figure