title: Creation and detection of Skyrmions in a Bose-Einstein condensate.
abstract: We present the first experimental realization and characterization of two-dimensional Skyrmions and half-Skyrmions in a spin-2 Bose-Einstein condensate. The continuous rotation of the local spin of the Skyrmion through an angle of pi (and half-Skyrmion through an angle of pi/2) across the cloud is confirmed by the spatial distribution of the three spin states as parametrized by the bending angle of the l vector. The winding number w = (0,1,2) of the internal spin states comprising the Skyrmions is confirmed through matter-wave interference.
authors.affiliation: The Institute of Optics, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA.
authors.forename: L S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Leslie
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hansen
authors.forename: K C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.forename: B M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Deutsch
authors.forename: N P
authors.initials: NP
authors.lastname: Bigelow