Fractional skyrme lines in ferroelectric barium titanate

Abstract

We predict a topological defect in perfectly screened ferroelectric barium titanate which we call a skyrme line. These are linelike objects characterized by skyrmionic topological charge. As well as configurations with integer topological charge, the charge density can split into well-localized parts carrying a localized fraction of topological charge. We show that under certain conditions the fractional skyrme lines are stable. We discuss a mechanism to create fractional topological charge objects and investigate their stability. Published by the American Physical Society 2024