TOPOLOGICAL ORDER IN THE VORTEX-GLASS PHASE OF HIGH-TEMPERATURE SUPERCONDUCTORS

The stability of a vortex glass phase with quasi-long-range positional order is examined for a disordered layered superconductor. The role o f topological defects is investigated using a scaling argument supplem ented by a variational calculation. The results indicate that topologi cal order is preserved for some range of parameters in the vortex glas s phase. The stability regime is given in terms of a simple Lindemann- like criterion and is consistent with recent experiments.