GPU-advanced 3D electromagnetic simulations of superconductors in the Ginzburg–Landau formalism

Ginzburg-Landau theory is one of the most powerful phenomenological theories in physics, with particular predictive value in superconductivity. The formalism solves coupled nonlinear differential equations for both the electronic and magnetic responsiveness of a given superconductor to external electromagnetic excitations. With order parameter varying on the short scale of the coherence length, and the magnetic field being long-range, the numerical handling of 3D simulations becomes extremely challenging and time-consuming for realistic samples. Here we show precisely how one can employ graphics-processing units (GPUs) for this type of calculations, and obtain physics answers of interest in a reasonable time-frame - with speedup of over 100x compared to best available CPU implementations of the theory on a 2563grid. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.