title: Stabilizing the false vacuum: Mott skyrmions.
abstract: Topological excitations keep fascinating physicists since many decades. While individual vortices and solitons emerge and have been observed in many areas of physics, their most intriguing higher dimensional topological relatives, skyrmions (smooth, topologically stable textures) and magnetic monopoles emerging almost necessarily in any grand unified theory and responsible for charge quantization remained mostly elusive. Here we propose that loading a three-component nematic superfluid such as (23)Na into a deep optical lattice and thereby creating an insulating core, one can create topologically stable skyrmion textures. The skyrmion's extreme stability and its compact geometry enable one to investigate the skyrmion's structure, and the interplay of topology and excitations in detail. In particular, the superfluid's excitation spectrum as well as the quantum numbers are demonstrated to change dramatically due to the skyrmion, and reflect the presence of a trapped monopole, as imposed by the skyrmion's topology.
authors.affiliation: 1] BME-MTA Exotic Quantum Phases Research Group, Budapest University of Technology and Economics and MTA-BME Condensed Matter Research Group, Budapest 1521, Hungary [2] Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kanász-Nagy
authors.affiliation: 1] BME-MTA Exotic Quantum Phases Research Group, Budapest University of Technology and Economics and MTA-BME Condensed Matter Research Group, Budapest 1521, Hungary [2] Department of Physics, Budapest University of Technology and Economics and MTA-BME Condensed Matter Research Group, Budapest 1521, Hungary.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dóra
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Demler
authors.affiliation: BME-MTA Exotic Quantum Phases Research Group, Budapest University of Technology and Economics and MTA-BME Condensed Matter Research Group, Budapest 1521, Hungary.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zaránd