Manipulating vortices in F = 2 Bose–Einstein condensates through magnetic field and spin–orbit coupling

Weinvestigate the vortex structures excited by Ioffe–Pritchard magnetic field and Dresselhaus-type spin–orbit coupling in F = 2 ferromagnetic Bose–Einstein condensates. In the weakly interatomic interacting regime, an external magnetic field can generate a polar-core vortex in which the canonical particle current is zero. With the combined effect of spin–orbit coupling and magnetic field, the ground state experiences a transition from polar-core vortex to Mermin–Ho vortex, in which the canonical particle current is anticlockwise. For fixed spin–orbit coupling strengths, the evolution of phase winding, magnetization, and degree of phase separation with magnetic field are studied. Additionally, with further increasing spin–orbit coupling strength, the condensate exhibits symmetrical density domains separated by radial vortex arrays. Our work paves the way to explore exotic topological excitations in high-spin systems.