Creep of superconducting vortices in the limit of vanishing temperature: A fingerprint of off-equilibrium dynamics

We theoretically study the creep of vortex matter in superconductors. The low temperatures experimental phenomenology, previously interpreted in terms of quantum tunnelling'' of vortices, is reproduced by Monte Carlo simulations of a purely classical’’ vortex model. We demonstrate that a non-zero creep rate in the limit of vanishing temperature is to be expected in systems with slow relaxations as a consequence of their off-equilibrium evolution in a complex free energy landscape.