ON THE TILT MODULUS OF THE FLUX-LINE LATTICE IN TYPE-II SUPERCONDUCTORS

Physical reasons are given for why the elastic tilt modulus of the flux-line lattice c44(k) is dispersive (nonlocal), why this nonlocality is more pronounced in anisotropic superconductors, why the continuum approximation (i.e., the description in terms of elastic moduli) works, why for short tilt wavelengths the isolated vortex contribution c44corr (k(z)) (originally considered as a correction) exceeds the main vortex-interaction term c44(0) (k), and why in anisotropic superconductors the line tension of an isolated vortex does not coincide with its line energy but rather has opposite and much larger angular dependence: The line energy is maximum for vortices along the crystal c-axis where the line tension attains a minimum. c44 is related to frequency enhancement and attenuation of vibrating superconductors.