Vortex Pinning in Type-II Superconductors

Real superconducting wires and magnets don't fail by losing superconductivity outright — they fail because the Abrikosov vortex lattice threading the material starts to move. This simulator renders a patch of type-II superconductor as a 3D slab: magnetic flux penetrates it as a triangular lattice of quantised vortices, and randomly placed material defects pin them in place. Drag the applied current above each vortex's local pinning threshold and watch it depin and stream sideways under the Lorentz force; keep it below threshold and thermal energy still lets vortices creep slowly between defects (Anderson–Kim flux creep). The live readouts track vortex count, the fraction still pinned, average drift velocity, and the J/J_c ratio that separates lossless transport from resistive flux flow — the same competition that sets the real-world critical current of every superconducting magnet, from MRI coils to tokamaks.