Fractional Skyrme lines in ferroelectric barium titanate

TL;DR

This paper predicts and analyzes the stability of fractional skyrme lines, a novel topological defect in ferroelectric barium titanate, with potential implications for topological defect engineering.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of fractional skyrme lines in ferroelectric materials and explores their stability and creation mechanisms.

Findings

Fractional skyrme lines can be stable under certain conditions.

Charge density can split into fractional parts.

Mechanisms for creating fractional topological charges are discussed.

Abstract

We predict a topological defect in ferroelectric barium titanate which we call a skyrme line. These are line-like objects characterized by skyrmionic topological charge. As well as configurations with integer charge, the charge density can split into well-localized fractional parts. We show that under certain conditions the fractional skyrme lines are stable. We discuss a mechanism to create fractional topological charge objects and investigate their stability.