Vortices in p-wave superconductors

Abstract

In this thesis, we study and compare two approaches to describe vortex lattices for a number of physical systems. The first approach consists of imposing an extra constraint equation on the order parameter, that leads to a Liouville-like partial differential equation for the particle density. The second approach is a new generalisation of a method originally developed by Abrikosov to the case of a certain p-wave superconductors.

With the first approach, we find an infinite number of energetically degenerate solutions. The second approach leads - under suitable conditions - to a phase transition between different vortex lattices.