On the Shape of Meissner Solutions to a Limiting Form of Ginzburg–Landau Systems

Abstract

In this paper we study a semilinear system involving the curl operator, which is a limiting form of the Ginzburg–Landau model for superconductors in \({{\mathbb{R}}^3}\) for a large value of the Ginzburg–Landau parameter. We consider the locations of the maximum points of the magnitude of solutions, which are associated with the nucleation of instability of the Meissner state for superconductors when the applied magnetic field is increased in the transition between the Meissner state and the vortex state. For small penetration depth, we prove that the location is not only determined by the tangential component of the applied magnetic field, but also by the normal curvatures of the boundary in some directions. This improves the result obtained by Bates and Pan in Commun. Math. Phys. 276, 571–610 (2007). We also show that the solutions decay exponentially in the normal direction away from the boundary if the penetration depth is small.