The precise measurements of vortex melting point towards a need to develop a quantitative theoretical description of thermal fluctuations in vortex matter. To tackle the difficult problem of melting, the description of both the solid and the liquid phase should reach the precision level well below 1%. Such a theory in the framework of the Ginzburg-Landau approach is presented. The melting line location is determined, and magnetization and specific-heat jumps along it are calculated. We find that the magnetization in the liquid is larger than that in the solid by 1.8% regardless of the melting temperature, while the specific-heat jump is about 6% and slowly decreases with temperature. The magnetization curves agree with experimental results on Y-Ba-Cu-O and Monte Carlo simulations.

• Received 12 April 2002

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.65.220504