Nucleation of bulk superconductivity close to critical magnetic field

We consider the two-dimensional Ginzburg-Landau functional with constant applied magnetic field. For applied magnetic fields close to the second critical field $H_{C_2}$ and large Ginzburg-Landau parameter, we provide leading order estimates on the energy of minimizing configurations. We obtain a fine threshold value of the applied magnetic field for which bulk superconductivity contributes to the leading order of the energy. Furthermore, the energy of the bulk is related to that of the Abrikosov problem in a periodic lattice. A key ingredient of the proof is a novel $L^\infty$-bound which is of independent interest.