Comment on "Domain Structure in a Superconducting Ferromagnet"

According to Faure and Buzdin [Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 187202 (2005)], in a superconducting ferromagnet a domain structure with a period small compared with the London penetration depth can arise. They claim that this contradicts to the conclusion of Sonin [Phys. Rev. B, 66, 100504 (2002)] that ferromagnetic domain structure in the Meissner state of a superconducting ferromagnet is absent in equilibrium. This contradiction is imaginary, based on misinterpretation of the results of these two papers.Comment: 1 page, no figures, final version published in Phys.Rev.Let

Domain structure of superconducting ferromagnets

In superconducting ferromagnets the equilibrium domain structure is absent in the Meissner state, but appears in the spontaneous vortex phase (the mixed state in zero external magnetic field), though with a period, which can essentially exceed that in normal ferromagnets. Metastable domain walls are possible even in the Meissner state. The domain walls create magnetostatic fields near the sample surface, which can be used for experimental detection of domain walls.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Phase transitions in a three dimensional U(1)×U(1)U(1) \times U(1) lattice London superconductor

We consider a three-dimensional lattice $U(1) \times U(1)$ superconductor in the London limit, with two individually conserved condensates. The problem, generically, has two types of intercomponent interactions of different characters. First, the condensates are interacting via a minimal coupling to the same fluctuating gauge field. A second type of coupling is the direct dissipationless drag represented by a local intercomponent current-current coupling term in the free energy functional. The interplay between these two types of interactions produces a number of physical effects not present in previously investigated $U(1)\times U(1)$ models with only one kind of intercomponent interaction. In this work, we present a study of the phase diagram of a $U(1) \times U(1)$ superconductor which includes both of these interactions. We study phase transitions and two types of competing paired phases which occur in this general model: (i) a metallic superfluid phase (where there is order only in the gauge invariant phase difference of the order parameters), (ii) a composite superconducting phase where there is order in the phase sum of the order parameters which has many properties of a single-component superconductor but with a doubled value of electric charge. We investigate the phase diagram with particular focus on what we call "preemptive phase transitions". These are phase transitions {\it unique to multicomponent condensates with competing topological objects}. A sudden proliferation of one kind of topological defects may come about due to a fluctuating background of topological defects in other sectors of the theory.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures. Submitted to Physical Review

Perturbative Analysis of a Stationary Magnetosphere in an Extreme Black Hole Spacetime : On the Meissner-like Effect of an Extreme Black Hole

It is known that the Meissner-like effect is seen in a magnetosphere without an electric current in black hole spacetime: no non-monopole component of magnetic flux penetrates the event horizon if the black hole is extreme. In this paper, in order to see how an electric current affects the Meissner-like effect, we study a force-free electromagnetic system in a static and spherically symmetric extreme black hole spacetime. By assuming that the rotational angular velocity of the magnetic field is very small, we construct a perturbative solution for the Grad-Shafranov equation, which is the basic equation to determine a stationary, axisymmetric electromagnetic field with a force-free electric current. Our perturbation analysis reveals that, if an electric current exists, higher multipole components may be superposed upon the monopole component on the event horizon, even if the black hole is extreme.Comment: 30 pages, 3 figure

Critical Behavior of the Meissner Transition in the Lattice London Superconductor

We carry out Monte Carlo simulations of the three dimensional (3D) lattice London superconductor in zero applied magnetic field, making a detailed finite size scaling analysis of the Meissner transition. We find that the magnetic penetration length \lambda, and the correlation length \xi, scale as \lambda ~ \xi ~ |t|^{-\nu}, with \nu = 0.66 \pm 0.03, consistent with ordinary 3D XY universality, \nu_XY ~ 2/3. Our results confirm the anomalous scaling dimension of magnetic field correlations at T_c.Comment: 4 pages, 5 ps figure