INERTIAL MASS OF A VORTEX IN CUPRATE SUPERCONDUCTORS

We present here a calculation of the inertial mass of a moving vortex in cuprate superconductors. This is a poorly known basic quantity of o bvious interest in vortex dynamics. The motion of a vortex causes a di polar density distortion and an associated electric field which is scr eened. The energy cost of the density distortion as well as the relate d screened electric field contributes to the vortex mass, which is sma ll because of efficient screening. As a preliminary, we present a disc ussion and calculation of the vortex mass using a microscopically deri vable phase-only action functional for the far region which shows that the contribution from the far region is negligible and that most of i t arises from the (small) core region of the vortex. A calculation bas ed on a phenomenological Ginzburg-Landau functional is performed in th e core region. Unfortunately such a calculation is unreliable; the rea sons for it are discussed. A credible calculation of the vortex mass t hus requires a fully microscopic non-coarse-grained theory. This is de veloped, and results are presented for an s-wave BCS-like gap, with pa rameters appropriate to the cuprates. The mass, about 0.5m(e) per laye r, for a magnetic field along the c axis arises from deformation of qu asiparticle states bound in the core and screening effects mentioned a bove. We discuss earlier results, possible extensions to d-wave symmet ry, and observability of effects dependent on the inertial mass. [S016 3-1829(97)05534-3].