Abstract
Using path integral Monte Carlo we simulate a 3D system of up to 1000 magnetic flux lines by mapping it onto interacting bosons in . With increasing temperatures we find first order melting from an ordered solid to an entangled liquid signaled by a finite entropy jump and sharp discontinuities of the defect density and the structure factor . For a particular density of strong columnar pins the crystal is transformed into a Bose glass phase with patches of crystalline order disrupted by the trapped vortices at the pinning sites but with no overall positional or orientational order. This glassy phase melts into a defected entangled liquid through a continuous transition.
- Received 31 August 2000
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.4092
©2001 American Physical Society