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arXiv:2610.17796

Skin phase transition of a skyrmion in a ferromagnetic superfluid

Wooyoung Yun, Se Kwon Kim, Hiromitsu Takeuchi

Published Oct 13, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

Compared with a scalar Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), a spinor BEC supports richer phenomena because of its internal spin degrees of freedom, including topological solitons such as domain walls or skyrmions. Here, we theoretically reveal three distinct axisymmetric soliton structures formed as a circular domain wall in a spin-1 BEC, connected within fixed winding numbers. We refer to these structures as the broken-axisymmetry (BA)-skin, antiferromagnetic (AF)-skin and normal-core phases. Their occurrence is controlled by the two dimensionless parameters in the absence of linear Zeeman coefficient $p=0$: $q/μ$, the ratio of the quadratic Zeeman coefficient to the chemical potential, and $c_s/c_n$, the ratio of spin interaction to the density interaction. The BA-skin and AF-skin phases exhibit local easy-plane magnetic order and local easy-plane spin-nematic order, respectively, while the normal-core phase is similar to a doubly quantized vortex analogous to that of a scalar BEC with a density depletion at the center. We obtain semi-analytical estimates of selected transition boundaries separating these phases by analyzing the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equation and also numerically confirm them by solving the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. We estimate the skyrmion radius using a hydrostatic approximation and compare the result with numerical solutions. We envision our results on skyrmions in a spin-1 BEC can trigger further investigation on novel soliton structures in a magnetic superfluid.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2610.17796

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The phase diagram of lowest-energy vortices in the polar phase of spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates is investigated theoretically. Singly quantized vortices are categorized by the local ordered state in the vortex core and three types of vortices are found as lowest-energy vortices, which are elliptic AF-core vortices, axisymmetric F-core vortices, and N-core vortices. These vortices are named after the local ordered state, ferromagnetic (F), antiferromagnetic (AF), broken-axisymmetry (BA), and normal (N) states apart from the bulk polar (P) state. The N-core vortex is a conventional vortex, in the core of which the superfluid order parameter vanishes. The other two types of vortices are stabilized when the quadratic Zeeman energy is smaller than a critical value. The axisymmetric F-core vortex is the lowest-energy vortex for ferromagnetic interaction, and it has an F core surrounded by a BA skin that forms a ferromagnetic-spin texture, as exemplified by the localized Mermin-Ho texture. The elliptic AF-core vortex is stabilized for antiferromagnetic interaction; the vortex core has both nematic-spin and ferromagnetic orders locally and is composed of the AF-core soliton spanned between two BA edges. The phase transition from the N-core vortex to the other two vortices is continuous, whereas that between the AF-core and F-core vortices is discontinuous. The critical point of the continuous vortex-core transition is computed by the perturbation analysis of the Bogoliubov theory and the Ginzburg-Landau formalism describes the critical behavior. The influence of trapping potential on the core structure is also investigated.
We study the dynamics of the quantum phase transition of a ferromagnetic spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) from the polar phase to the broken-axisymmetry phase by changing magnetic field, and find the spontaneous formation of spinor domain walls followed by the creation of polar-core spin vortices. We also find that the spin textures depend very sensitively on the initial noise distribution, and that an anisotropic and colored initial noise is needed to reproduce the Berkeley experiment [Sadler et al., Nature (London) 443, 312 (2006)]. The dynamics of vortex nucleation and the number of created vortices depend also on the manner in which the magnetic field is changed. We point out an analogy between the formation of spin vortices from domain walls in a spinor BEC and that of vortex-antivortex pairs from dark solitons in a scalar BEC.
Spinful superfluids of ultracold atoms are ideal for investigating the intrinsic properties of spin current and texture because they are realized in an isolated, nondissipative system free from impurities, dislocations, and thermal fluctuations. This study theoretically reveals the impact of spin current on a magnetic domain wall in spinful superfluids. An exact wall solution is obtained in the ferromagnetic phase of a spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate with easy-axis anisotropy at zero temperature. The bosonic-quasiparticle mechanics analytically show that the spin current along the wall becomes unstable if the velocity exceeds the critical spin-current velocities, leading to complicated situations because of the competition between transverse magnons and ripplons. Our direct numerical simulation reveals that this system has a mechanism to generate an eccentric fractional skyrmion, which has a fractional topological charge, but its texture is not similar to that of a meron. This mechanism is in contrast to the generation of conventional skyrmions in easy-axis magnets. The theoretical findings can be examined in the same situation as in a recent experiment on ultracold atoms. In terms of the universality of spontaneous symmetry breaking, unexplored similar phenomena are expected in different physical systems with the same broken symmetry.
The spin degrees of freedom in multicomponent Bose–Einstein condensates allow for various types of topological excitations, such as skyrmions and knots. Systems with high spins offer a broader range of internal symmetries. For instance, in spin-1 Bose–Einstein condensates, one can observe not only the two-dimensional (2D) skyrmion spin texture but also the bimeron spin texture. However, it remains challenging to experimentally create or stabilize a bimeron and identify the conditions that facilitate its formation. In this context, our research predicts a novel form of topological structure known as the domain wall bimeron in ferromagnetic spin-1 Bose–Einstein condensates by manipulating the magnetic field. Unlike conventional 2D skyrmions, this unique bimeron exhibits a non-axisymmetric spin texture and features complex off-axis vortices whose cores are connected by domain walls. This work significantly contributes to the study of 2D topological excitations in quantum matter with high spins.
We theoretically study the structure of a stationary soliton in the polar phase of spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate in the presence of quadratic Zeeman effect at zero temperature.The phase diagram of such solitons is mapped out by finding the states of minimal soliton energy in the defining range of polar phase.The states are assorted into normal, antiferromagnetic, broken-axisymmetry, and ferromagnetic phases according to the particle and spin densities in the core.The order of phase transitions between different solitons and the critical behavior of relevant continuous transitions are proved within the mean-field theory.
Spinor Bose gases may exhibit both phase and ferromagnetic order. Consequently, they may support superflow of both mass and spin currents. In this thesis we utilize a stochastic Gross-Pitaevskii model to investigate the superfluid properties of a two-dimensional spin-1 Bose gas with ferromagnetic interactions. Owing to the low dimensionality, the superfluidity of this system can not be attributed to the presence of a Bose-Einstein condensate, with thermal fluctuations precluding long-range order. Rather, mass and spin superfluidity emerge via respective Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transitions. Such transitions are characterized by the emergence of quasi-long-range order, driven by the binding of topological defect pairs. First, we consider an easy-plane ferromagnetic gas. We find the system superfluidity may be understood by direct application of existing BKT theory. In particular, mass and spin superfluidity are respectively associated with quasi-long-range order in the global phase and local magnetization. The former arises from the binding of mass vortex pairs, while the latter arises from the binding of polar-core spin vortex pairs. Following this, we introduce axial magnetization, and consider a gas in the broken-axisymmetric phase. We find axial magnetization acts to couple mass and spin superflows via a mechanism analogous to the superfluid drag exhibited by two-component superfluids. This coupling renders invalid the direct applicability of existing BKT theory: here mass and spin superfluidity may each be associated with both phase and magnetic order. We remedy this with a generalization making concrete the relation between superfluidity and quasi-long-range order in this system. In addition, through variations of the quadratic Zeeman energy and axial magnetization we identify three distinct superfluid phases, which serve as finite-temperature generalizations of the polar, broken-axisymmetric, and easy-axis ferromagnetic ground states.