# Skyrmion Spin Ice in Liquid Crystals

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel Skyrmion Spin Ice system using liquid crystal skyrmions, demonstrating their potential as controllable quasi-particles for studying frustrated systems and complex collective behaviors.

## Contribution

It presents the first realization of Skyrmion Spin Ice in liquid crystals, showing how skyrmions can serve as binary variables to emulate ice-rule states.

## Key findings

- Liquid crystal skyrmions can be confined, created, and annihilated with precision.
- Skyrmions can be used to implement binary variables in frustrated systems.
- The system opens new avenues for studying complex collective behaviors.

## Abstract

We propose the first Skyrmion Spin Ice, realized via confined, interacting liquid crystal skyrmions. Skyrmions in a chiral nematic liquid crystal behave as quasi-particles that can be dynamically confined, bound, and created or annihilated individually with ease and precision. We show that these quasi-particles can be employed to realize binary variables that interact to form ice-rule states. Because of their unique versatility, liquid crystal skyrmions can open entirely novel avenues in the field of frustrated systems. More broadly, our findings also demonstrate the viability of LC skyrmions as elementary degrees of freedom in the design of collective complex behaviors.