Ordered phases and phase transitions in type-II superconductors

Type-II superconductors exhibit quite a variety of distinct thermodynamic phases as one varies temperature, applied magnetic field, Cooper pair effective mass anisotropy, and the strength, density and nature of randomly placed structural or chemical imperfections in the material. Our current understanding of some of these phases and the phase transitions between them are very briefly reviewed. One open question examined in more detail is whether the Abrikosov vortex lattice is thermodynamically stable against dislocations for weak random vortex pinning.