These lectures cover aspects of solitons with focus on applications to the quantum dynamics of supersymmetric gauge theories and string theory. The lectures consist of four sections, each dealing with a different soliton. We start with instantons and work down in co-dimension to monopoles, vortices and, eventually, domain walls. Emphasis is placed on the moduli space of solitons and, in particu...

We experimentally and theoretically explore the creation time evolution of vortex lines in polar magnetic phase a trapped spin-1 $^{87}$Rb Bose-Einstein condensate. A process phase-imprinting nonsingular vortex, its decay into pair singular spinor vortices, rapid exchange phases creates three-dimensional, singly-quantized with core regions that are filled atoms ferromagnetic phase. Atomic inter...

Applying a bi-local mean field approximation to the fractional quantum Hall state of ν = 1/3, we obtain charged and neutral vortex mean field solutions numerically. We calculate the mean field energy and the fluctuation corrections. The charged vortex has a fractional charge and a fractional angular momentum. The neutral vortex is a bound state of two charged vortices and has a zero charge and ...

The glass-like vortex distribution in pulsed laser deposited YBa2Cu3O(7-x) thin films is observed by scanning superconducting quantum interference device microscopy and analysed for ordering after cooling in magnetic fields significantly smaller than the Earth's field. Autocorrelation calculations on this distribution show a weak short-range positional order, while Delaunay triangulation shows ...

The experimental investigation of spontaneously created vortices is of utmost importance for the understanding of quantum phase transitions towards a superfluid phase, especially for two-dimensional systems that are expected to be governed by the Berezinski-Kosterlitz-Thouless physics. By means of time-resolved near-field interferometry we track the path of such vortices, created at random loca...

A new local and gauge invariant quantum vortex operator is constructed in three-dimensional gauge field theories. The correlation functions of this operator are evaluated exactly in pure Maxwell theory and by means of a loop expansion in the Abelian Higgs model. In the broken symmetry phase of the latter an explicit expression for the mass of the quantum vortices is obtained from the long dista...

We perform strategic current injection in a small mesoscopic superconductor and control the (non)equilibrium quantum states in an applied homogeneous magnetic field. In doing so, we realize a current-driven splitting of multiquanta vortices, current-induced transitions between states with different angular momenta, and current-controlled switching between otherwise degenerate quantum states. Th...

I dentifying new phases of matter that have unusual properties is a key goal of condensed-matter physics. A famous recent example is the theoretical prediction of crystalline materials known as topological insulators (TIs), several of which have now been identified in the laboratory [1]. TIs are electronic insulators in their d-dimensional interior (bulk) but allow metallic conduction on their ...

We show how giant vortices can be stabilized for strong external potentials in Bose-Einstein condensates. We illustrate the formation of these vortices thanks to the Ginzburg-Landau dissipative dynamics for two typical potentials in two spatial dimensions. The giant vortex stability is studied for the particular case of a rotating cylindrical hard wall. Due to axial symmetry the minimization of...

In a numerical experiment based on Gross-Pitaevskii formalism, we demonstrate unique topological quantum coherence in optically trapped Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs). Exploring the fact that vortices in rotating BEC can be pinned by a geometric arrangement of laser beams, we show the parameter range in which vortex-antivortex molecules or multiquantum vortices are formed as a consequence of ...