Possible spacing between linear vortices in a 3D ordered Josephson medium

Abstract

A method is proposed for solving the nonlinear system of equations of fluxoid quantization for two interacting linear vortices. It is shown that the centers of the vortices may lie in adjacent cells only if the pinning parameter I > 0.91, in alternate cells if I > 0.44, and in each third cell if I > 0.25. These critical values are substantially lower than analogous values for planar vortices. It is shown that, as the value of I tends to zero, the minimal spacing between linear vortices does not increase indefinitely, but attains a certain finite value and then remains unchanged. This means that pinning of linear vortices cannot be ignored even for values of I quite close to zero. It is shown that two linear vortices with centers in the neighboring cells along a diagonal may coexist for indefinitely small values of I.