ON THE ENERGY OF TYPE-II SUPERCONDUCTORS IN THE MIXED PHASE

We study the Ginzburg–Landau energy of superconductors with high κ, put in a prescribed external field h_ex, for h_ex varying between the two critical fields H_c1 and H_c3. As κ → +∞, we give the leading term in the asymptotic expansion of the minimal energy and show that energy minimizers have vortices whose density tends to be uniform and equal to h_ex.