Derrick scaling of the Abelian Higgs energy ($E(\lambda )={\lambda }^2{E}_B+E_D+{\lambda }^{-2}{E}_P$)

In two dimensions, scale ${\Phi }_{\lambda }(x)=\Phi (\lambda x)$ and $A_{j,\lambda }(x)=\lambda A_j(\lambda x)$. The magnetic field has scaling weight two, the gauge covariant derivative of the Higgs field has weight one, and the potential has weight zero. Their integrated energies therefore have the powers shown. Stationarity gives $E_B=E_P$, a Derrick virial identity. This balance allows a planar Abelian Higgs vortex to have finite size even though a scalar-gradient-plus-nonnegative-potential model has no comparable magnetic term.