Nonminimal solutions to the Ginzburg-Landau equations on surfaces

Abstract: We prove the existence of novel, nonminimal and irreducible solutions to the (self-dual) Ginzburg-Landau equations on closed surfaces. To our knowledge these are the first such examples on nontrivial line bundles, that is, with nonzero total magnetic flux. Our method works with the 2-dimensional, critically coupled Ginzburg-Landau theory and uses the topology of the moduli space. The method is nonconstructive, but works for all values of the remaining coupling constant. We also prove the instability of these solutions.