Continuous melting of a partially pinned two-dimensional vortex lattice in a square array of pinning centers

The structure and equilibrium properties of a two-dimensional system of superconducting vortices in a periodic pinning potential with square symmetry are studied numerically. For a range of the strength of the pinning potential, the low-temperature crystalline state exhibits only one of the two basic periodicities (in the x and y directions) of the pinning potential. This “partially pinned” solid undergoes a continuous melting transition to a weakly modulated liquid as the temperature is increased. A spin model, constructed using symmetry arguments, is shown to reproduce the critical behavior at this transition.