On the distributions of the form ∑i (δpi−δni)

We present some properties of the distributions T of the form ∑i (δpi−δni), with ∑i d(pi,ni)<∞, which arise in the study of the 3-d Ginzburg–Landau problem; see Bourgain et al. (C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 331 (2000) 119–124). We show that there always exists an irreducible representation of T. We also extend a result of Smets (C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 334 (2002) 371–374) which says that T is a measure iff T can be written as a finite sum of dipoles.