Topological defects in rotating spin-orbit-coupled dipolar spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates

Abstract: We consider the topological defects and spin structures of spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) with spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and dipole-dipole interaction (DDI) in a rotating harmonic plus quartic trap. The combined effects of SOC, DDI and rotation on the ground-state phases of the system are analyzed. Our results show that for fixed rotation frequency structural phase transitions can be achieved by adjusting the magnitudes of the SOC and DDI. A ground-state phase diagram is given as a function of the SOC and DDI strengths. It is shown that the system exhibits rich quantum phases including vortex string phase with isolated density peaks (DPs), triangular (square) vortex lattice phase with DPs, checkerboard phase, and stripe phase with hidden vortices and antivortices. For given SOC and DDI strengths, the system can display pentagonal vortex lattice with DPs, vortex necklace with DPs, and exotic topological structure composed of multi-layer visible vortex necklaces, a hidden giant vortex and hidden vortex necklaces, depending on the rotation frequency. In addition, the system sustains fascinating novel spin textures and skyrmion excitations, such as an antiskyrmion pair, antiskyrmion-half-antiskyrmion (antiskyrmion-antimeron) cluster, skyrmion-antiskyrmion lattice, skyrmion-antiskyrmion cluster, skyrmion-antiskyrmion-meron-antimeron lattice, double-layer half-antiskyrmion necklaces, and composite giant-antiskyrmion-antimeron necklaces.