Vortex dynamics and decay of supercurrent in 2-d superconductors

The decay of supercurrent in a 2-d superconductor through the homogenous quantum nucleation of vortex-antivortex pairs is formulated as a (2+1)-d scalar quantum electrodynamic problem. The calculation of the quantum decay rate can then be simplified to the usual single particle WKB calculation. We show explicitly that the homogeneous quantum nucleation of vortex-antivortex pairs is incompatible to the existence of the magnus force in the absence of dissipation, and point out more complicated nucleation processes needed to be studied by the vortex dynamics method in such case.