Unfolding unstable skyrmionic polarization textures
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arXiv
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| Auteurs principaux: | , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Publié: |
2026
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| _version_ | 1866908965245288448 |
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| author | Mata-Cervera, Nilo Guo, Zhenyu Shen, Yijie |
| author_facet | Mata-Cervera, Nilo Guo, Zhenyu Shen, Yijie |
| contents | Polarization of light can form skyrmionic textures, akin to nonlinear solitons in condensed matter, yet their disparate physical context has motivated extensive debate regarding their stability. Here we show that the topological charge of such structures (skyrmion number) changes when an arbitrarily small perturbation splits coalescent phase singularities. In a superposition of two vortex beams, the skyrmion number generally only depends on the higher order topological charge $\lrr{Q_{\rm sk}=\max\lr{\ell_2,\ell_1}}$ rather than the difference of charges of the vortices in superposition $\lrr{Q_{\rm sk}=\ell_2-\ell_1}$, which only holds in the absence of perturbation. These results have significant implications for polarization structures with wavelength-scale localization and those experiencing complex aberrations. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_13601 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Unfolding unstable skyrmionic polarization textures Mata-Cervera, Nilo Guo, Zhenyu Shen, Yijie Optics Polarization of light can form skyrmionic textures, akin to nonlinear solitons in condensed matter, yet their disparate physical context has motivated extensive debate regarding their stability. Here we show that the topological charge of such structures (skyrmion number) changes when an arbitrarily small perturbation splits coalescent phase singularities. In a superposition of two vortex beams, the skyrmion number generally only depends on the higher order topological charge $\lrr{Q_{\rm sk}=\max\lr{\ell_2,\ell_1}}$ rather than the difference of charges of the vortices in superposition $\lrr{Q_{\rm sk}=\ell_2-\ell_1}$, which only holds in the absence of perturbation. These results have significant implications for polarization structures with wavelength-scale localization and those experiencing complex aberrations. |
| title | Unfolding unstable skyrmionic polarization textures |
| topic | Optics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.13601 |