Holographic topological defects and local gauge symmetry: clusters of strongly coupled equal-sign vortices

Gauge invariance plays an important role in forming topological defects. In this work, from the AdS/CFT correspondence, we realize the clusters of equal-sign vortices during the course of critical dynamics of a strongly coupled superconductor. This is the first time to achieve the equal-sign vortex clusters in strongly coupled systems. The appearance of clusters of equal-sign vortices is a typical character of flux trapping mechanism, distinct from Kibble-Zurek mechanism which merely presents vortex-antivortex pair distributions resulting from global symmetry breaking. Numerical results of spatial correlations and net fluxes of the equal-sign vortex clusters quantitatively support the positive correlations between vortices. The linear dependence between the vortex number and the amplitude of magnetic field at the ‘trapping’ time demonstrates the flux trapping mechanism very well.

Study of Possible Frequency Dependence of Small AC Fields on Magnetic Flux Trapping in Niobium by Polarized Neutron Imaging

Reducing the size of ambient magnetic flux trapping during cooldown in superconducting radio-frequency niobium cavities is essential to reaching the lowest power dissipation as required for continuous wave application. Here, it is suggested that applying an alternating magnetic field superimposed to the external DC field can potentially reduce the size of trapped flux by supporting flux line movement. This hypothesis is tested for the first time systematically on a buffered chemically polished (BCP) niobium sample before and after high temperature annealing, a procedure which is known to reduce flux pinning. External low-frequency (Hz-range) magnetic fields were applied to the samples during their superconducting transition and the effect of varying their amplitude, frequency and offset was investigated. A few results can be highlighted: The influence of the frequency and magnitude of the AC fields on the flux trapping in the untreated Nb sample cannot be neglected. The trapped flux seems to be homogeneously distributed, unlike the flux trapping in, e.g., lead (Pb), which is a type I superconductor. After annealing, the Nb sample shows practically no dependency of flux trapping on external AC fields. The trapped magnetic flux was measured by polarized neutron imaging, and calculations of trapped fields show good agreement with experimental results.

Direct evidence of microstructure dependence of magnetic flux trapping in niobium

Elemental type-II superconducting niobium is the material of choice for superconducting radiofrequency cavities used in modern particle accelerators, light sources, detectors, sensors, and quantum computing architecture. An essential challenge to increasing energy efficiency in rf applications is the power dissipation due to residual magnetic field that is trapped during the cool down process due to incomplete magnetic field expulsion. New SRF cavity processing recipes that use surface doping techniques have significantly increased their cryogenic efficiency. However, the performance of SRF Nb accelerators still shows vulnerability to a trapped magnetic field. In this manuscript, we report the observation of a direct link between flux trapping and incomplete flux expulsion with spatial variations in microstructure within the niobium. Fine-grain recrystallized microstructure with an average grain size of 10–50 µm leads to flux trapping even with a lack of dislocation structures in grain interiors. Larger grain sizes beyond 100–400 µm do not lead to preferential flux trapping, as observed directly by magneto-optical imaging. While local magnetic flux variations imaged by magneto-optics provide clarity on a microstructure level, bulk variations are also indicated by variations in pinning force curves with sequential heat treatment studies. The key results indicate that complete control of the niobium microstructure will help produce higher performance superconducting resonators with reduced rf losses1 related to the magnetic flux trapping.