Properties of skyrmions and multi-quanta vortices in chiral $p$-wave superconductors

Abstract

Chiral $p$-wave superconducting state supports a rich spectrum of topological excitations different from those in conventional superconducting states. Besides domain walls separating different chiral states, chiral $p$-wave state supports both singular and coreless vortices also interpreted as skyrmions. Here, we present a numerical study of the energetic properties of isolated singular and coreless vortex states as functions of anisotropy and magnetic field penetration length. In a given chiral state, single quantum vortices with opposite winding have different energies and thus only one kind is energetically favoured. We find that with the appropriate sign of the phase winding, two-quanta (coreless) vortices are always energetically preferred over two isolated single quanta (singular) vortices. We also report solutions carrying more flux quanta. However those are typically more energetically expensive/metastable as compared to those carrying two flux quanta.

8 pages, 4 figures

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• Vortical versus skyrmionic states in mesoscopic \emph{p}-wave superconductors
• Electronic properties of emergent topological defects in chiral $p$-wave superconductivity
• Topological phase transitions in small mesoscopic chiral p-wave superconductors
• Multiply quantized vortices in fermionic superfluids: angular momentum, unpaired fermions, and spectral asymmetry
• Prediction of time-reversal-symmetry breaking fermionic quadrupling condensate in twisted bilayer graphene
• Lattices of double-quanta vortices and chirality inversion in $p_x+i{p}_y$ superconductors
• Skyrmionic chains and lattices in $s+id$ superconductors
• Coreless vortices as direct signature of chiral $d$-wave superconductivity
• Phase diagram of superconductivity in the integer quantum Hall regime
• Self-dual solitons in a generalized Chern-Simons baby Skyrme model
• Robust and tunable coreless vortices and fractional vortices in chiral $d$-wave superconductors
• Vortex liquid phase in the p-wave ferromagnetic superconductor UCoGe
• Laser pulse probe of chirality of Cooper pairs
• Dynamics of skyrmions and edge states in the resistive regime of mesoscopic \emph{p}-wave superconductors
• Thermal fluctuations and vortex lattice structures in chiral $p$-wave superconductors: robustness of double-quanta vortices
• Vortices in Two-Dimensional Chiral Superfluids
• Quasiclassical theory of vortex states in locally non-centrosymmetric superconductors: application to CeRh${}_2$As${}_2$