Vortex Matter in Heterothermal Superconducting Loops.

We studied the (magnetic field-temperature) phase diagram, the resistive state, and the vortex configurations of a rectangular superconducting loop, under an electrical transport current J, and an external applied magnetic field H. We show that the critical current density in the I − V characteristic curve J_c1, at which the first vortex–antivortex (V-Av) pair nucleates in the sample, as well as the number of jumps in the I − V curve (i.e., different resistive states), strongly depends on the temperature of the sample and the spatial variation of critical temperature in the sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]