GLASSINESS VERSUS ORDER IN DENSELY FRUSTRATED JOSEPHSON ARRAYS

We carry out extensive Monte Carlo simulations of the Coulomb gas dual to the uniformly frustrated two-dimensional XY model, for a sequence of frustrations f converging to the irrational (3 - root 5)/2. We find in these systems a sharp first order equilibrium phase transition to an ordered vortex structure at a T-c which varies only slightly with f . This ordered vortex structure remains, in general, phase incoherent until a lower vortex pinning transition T-p(f) that varies with f. We argue that the glassy behaviors reported for this model in earlier sim ulations are dynamic effects.