Creation and detection of skyrmions in a Bose-Einstein condensate
Quantum Gases
2010-01-11 v1 Other Condensed Matter
Abstract
We present the first experimental realization and characterization of two-dimensional skyrmions and half-skyrmions in a spin-2 Bose-Einstein condensate. The continuous rotation of the local spin of the skyrmion through an angle of pi (and half-skyrmion through an angle of pi/2) across the cloud is confirmed by the spatial distribution of the three spin states as parameterized by the bending angle of the ell-vector. The winding number, w = (0, 1, 2), of the skyrmions is confirmed through matter-wave interference.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.0910.4918,
title = {Creation and detection of skyrmions in a Bose-Einstein condensate},
author = {L. S. Leslie and A. Hansen and K. C. Wright and B. M. Deutsch and N. P. Bigelow},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0910.4918},
year = {2010}
}
Comments
4 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in PRL