Magnetization induced skyrmion dynamics of a spin–orbit-coupled spinor condensate under sinusoidally varying magnetic field

Abstract We explore the spin texture dynamics of a harmonically trapped spin-1 Bose–Einstein condensate with Rashba spin–orbit coupling and ferromagnetic spin-exchange interactions under a sinusoidally varying magnetic field along the x -direction. This interplay yields an intrinsic spin texture in the ground state, forming a linear chain of alternating skyrmions at the saddle points of the magnetic field. Our study analyzes the spin-mixing dynamics for both a freely evolving and a controlled longitudinal magnetization. The spin-1 system exhibits the Einstein–de Haas effect for the first case, for which an exchange between the total orbital angular momentum and the spin angular momentum is observed, resulting in minimal oscillations about the initial position of the skyrmion chain. However, for the fixed magnetization dynamics, the skyrmion chain exhibits ample angular oscillations about the equilibrium position, with the temporary formation of new skyrmions to facilitate the oscillatory motion. For the case of fixed magnetization, this contrast now stems from the exchange between the canonical and spin-dependent contribution to the orbital angular momentum. The variation in canonical angular momentum is linked to the angular oscillations, while the spin-dependent angular momentum accounts for the creation or annihilation of skyrmions. We confirm the presence of scissors mode excitations in the spin texture due to the angular skyrmion oscillations.