Glass phases and melting of flux lattices in layered superconductors

A vortex lattice with dislocations generated by thermal fluctuations and by disorder is studied. The dislocations are restricted to parallel edge dislocations which applies, e.g., to magnetic field parallel to the superconducting layers. We allow for two types of disorder: point disorder with Fourier component comparable to the flux periodicity, and long wavelength disorder. It is known that point disorder leads to a 3-dimensional (3D) Bragg glass phase with algebraic correlations and a 3D to 2D transition. By using replica symmetry breaking methods, we find a new relevant term in the free energy which allows the long wavelength disorder to have significant effects on the phase diagram. First, it produces a first order transition within the 3D glass phase and second, in the absence of point disorder it allows for a glass phase with long range order. Furthermore, we find that the long wavelength disorder leads by itself to a continuous 3D to 2D transition.