University of Toronto
Totonto, Ontario, Canada
The Abelian Higgs (or Ginzburg-Landau) model in ${\bf R}^2$ is studied in connection with superconductivity, and as a model classical field theory. The corresponding equations admit radially-symmetric solutions called ``vortices,'' which are characterized by an integer topological degree. We present results concerning the stability (energy minimization) of vortices, a property which depends both on the topological degree, and on the coupling constant. The latter dependence is related to the classification of superconductors into types I and II.