Abstract
We consider the effect of weak uncorrelated quenched disorder (point defects) on a strongly fluctuating flux-line liquid. We use a hydrodynamic model which is based on mapping the flux-line system onto a quantum liquid of relativistic charged bosons in 2+1 dimensions [P. Benetatos and M. C. Marchetti, Phys. Rev. B 64, 054518, (2001)]. In this model, flux lines are allowed to be arbitrarily curved and can even form closed loops. Point defects can be scalar or polar. In the latter case, the direction of their dipole moments can be random or correlated. Within the Gaussian approximation of our hydrodynamic model, we calculate disorder-induced corrections to the correlation functions of the flux-line fields and the elastic moduli of the flux-line liquid. We find that scalar disorder enhances loop nucleation, and polar (magnetic) defects decrease the tilt modulus.
Highlights
The physics of vortex-line arrays in type-II superconductors has been the subject of intense research activity in the past fifteen odd years [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
In this paper we present a hydrodynamic model of strongly fluctuating flux liquids that allows us to describe in a unified manner both field-induced lines and spontaneous loops
Building on this work and its generalization to vortex liquids in a field, we recently proposed a general mapping of flux-line liquids of directed field-induced lines and spontaneous flux loops onto a twodimensional system of relativistic charged quantum bosons, where the external applied field for the bosons corresponds to the bosonic chemical potential [26]
Summary
The physics of vortex-line arrays in type-II superconductors has been the subject of intense research activity in the past fifteen odd years [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. A powerful method for describing both clean and disordered vortex liquids is the mapping of the statistical mechanics of directed line liquids in three dimensions onto that of two-dimensional nonrelativistic quantum bosons [12, 13, 14] This mapping assumes small fluctuations of the flux lines away from the direction zof the external applied field and intervortex interactions only among line segments at the same “height”, z. The key ingredient is a new scalar field that describes the density of flux-line length regardless of its direction or orientation and incorporates the contribution from neighboring antiparallel segments associated with closed loos We use this framework to study the effect of point disorder on the flux-line liquid by evaluating perturbatively disorder-induced corrections to the static correlation functions and to the elastic constants.
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