Abstract
By means of a constrained variational calculation we determine the interaction energy of two-vortex configurations in the Ginzburg-Landau theory or, equivalently, in the Abelian Higgs model. The energy is evaluated as a function of the separation between vortices and of the parameter , which measures the relative strength of the matter self-coupling and the electromagnetic coupling. Our results provide a precise determination of the inter-vortex potential, attractive for and repulsive for . They also show that for the lower bound on the energy which can be then derived is actually reached at all separations and, therefore, that in this case vortices do not interact.
- Received 20 November 1978
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.19.4486
©1979 American Physical Society