title: Chiral hedgehog textures in two-dimensional XY-like ordered domains
abstract: The textures associated with a point defect centered in a circular domain of a thin film with XY-like ordering have been analyzed. The family of equilibrium textures, both stable and metastable, can be classified by a new radial topological number in addition to the winding number of the defect. Chiral textures are supported in an achiral system as a result of spontaneously broken chiral symmetry. Among these chiral textures, our theoretical analysis accurately describes two categories of recently discovered "reversing spiral" textures, ones that are energetically stable and metastable.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095-1547, USA.
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Loh
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kraus
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Meyer