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 temperature experimental phenomenology, previously interpreted in terms of "quantum tunneling" of vortices, is reproduced by Monte Carlo simulations of a purely "classical" vortex model. We demonstrate that a nonzero 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.