Vortex dynamics of rotating SU(3) spin–orbit-coupled Bose–Einstein condensates with soft-core interactions

We investigate vortex dynamics triggered by the collapse of ring dark solitons (RDSs) in rotating spin-1 Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs) with SU(3) spin–orbit coupling (SOC) and Rydberg soft-core interactions. The governing roles of initial RDS depth, SU(3) SOC, Rydberg nonlocal nonlinearity and rotation in the formation of vortex dipoles and lump-like solitons (LSs) are revealed. The initial depth modulates snaking instability and regulates the population of localized structures, leading to competitive conversion between LSs and vortex dipoles at the early stage. Stronger SU(3) SOC suppresses late vortex dipoles and redistributes early-time excitations, while significantly accelerating the collapse of the BEC density peak. With growing SOC strength, the critical depth remains constant initially, then decreases and finally plateaus, reducing the instability threshold. Conversely, Rydberg interactions raise the critical depth and reduce the early vortex number by suppressing snaking instability, and accentuate SOC-induced mirror symmetry breaking. With increasing Rydberg blockade radius, the critical depth for snaking instability exhibits non-monotonic behavior under the nontrivial modulation of blockade-range-dependent effective interactions. Rotation exerts negligible influence on the critical instability depth yet mainly modulates the late-stage patterns. This work reveals abundant nonlinear dynamics in multicomponent superfluids and provides a flexible platform for exploring topological defects and soliton stability.