Numerical simulations of driven vortex systems

This paper reports on several large-scale numerical simulations of vortex systems that are driven through superconducting media with defects. The simulations are based on the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau equations. The simulations demonstrate regimes of plastic and elastic steady-state motion in the presence of a twin boundary, show the effect of regular and irregular arrays of point defects on vortex trajectories, and show a mechanism by which vortices move through an array of columnar defects. Also presented are the results of some transient simulations in two and three dimensions, which show that, in the transition from the Meissner state to the vortex state, vortices are formed by a process of deposition. (c) 2000 The American Physical Society.