Topological classification of vortex-core structures of spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates

TL;DR

This paper develops a topological classification method for vortex-core structures in spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates, revealing how the order parameter varies inside the vortex core and identifying conditions for stabilizing nontrivial structures.

Contribution

It introduces a novel topological approach to classify vortex cores in spin-1 BECs based on local winding numbers, advancing understanding of vortex stability.

Findings

Vortex-core structures are classified by locally defined winding numbers.

Nontrivial winding number structures can be stabilized with negative quadratic Zeeman effect.

The method provides a systematic way to analyze vortex-core topology in spinor condensates.

Abstract

We classify vortex-core structures according to the topology of the order parameter space. By developing a method to characterize how the order parameter changes inside the vortex core. We apply this method to the spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates and show that the vortex-core structures are classified by winding numbers that are locally defined in the core region. We also show that a vortex-core structure with a nontrivial winding number can be stabilized under a negative quadratic Zeeman effect.