Participation-Ratio Entropy and Critical Fluctuations in the Thermodynamics of Pancake Vortices

We report on a study of the thermodynamics of the Ginzburg-Landau model for two-dimensional type-II superconductors near the transition from the normal state to the Abrikosov-lattice state. We couch our analysis in terms of the participation-ratio entropy, $s(P)$, which expresses the volume in order-parameter-space with a given participation-ratio for the local superfluid density. $s(P)$ completely determines the thermodynamics of the system. We report on results for $s(P)$ obtained analytically using perturbation expansion methods and numerically using Monte Carlo simulation methods and discuss the weak first-order phase transition which occurs in this system in terms of the properties of $s(P)$.