Multilevel Monte Carlo simulations of a BSCCO system are carried out
including both Josephson as well as electromagnetic couplings for a range of
anisotropies. A first order melting transition of the flux lattice is seen on
increasing the temperature and/or the magnetic field. The phase diagram for
BSCCO is obtained for different values of the anisotropy parameter γ.
The best fit to the experimental results of D. Majer {\it et al.} [Phys. Rev.
Lett. {\bf 75}, 1166 (1995)] is obtained for γ≈250 provided one
assumes a temperature dependence λ2(0)/λ2(T)=1−t of the
penetration depth with t=T/Tc​. Assuming a dependence
λ2(0)/λ2(T)=1−t2 the best fit is obtained for γ≈450. For finite anisotropy the data is shown to collapse on a straight line
when plotted in dimensionless units which shows that the melting transition can
be satisfied with a single Lindemann parameter whose value is about 0.3. A
different scaling applies to the γ=∞ case. The energy jump is
measured across the transition and for large values of γ it is found to
increase with increasing anisotropy and to decrease with increasing magnetic
field. For infinite anisotropy we see a 2D behavior of flux droplets with a
transition taking place at a temperature independent of the magnetic field. We
also show that for smaller values of anisotropy it is reasonable to replace the
electromagnetic coupling with an in-plane interaction represented by a Bessel
function of the second kind (K0​), thus justifying our claim in a previous
paper.Comment: 12 figures, revtex