Topologically protected vortex knots and links

In 1869, Lord Kelvin found that the way vortices are knotted and linked in an ideal fluid remains unchanged in evolution, and consequently hypothesized atoms to be knotted vortices in a ubiquitous ether, different knotting types corresponding to different types of atoms. Even though Kelvin’s atomic theory turned out incorrect, it inspired several important developments, such as the mathematical theory of knots and the investigation of knotted structures that naturally arise in physics. However, in previous studies, knotted and linked structures have been found to untie via local cut-and-paste events referred to as reconnections. Here, in contrast, we construct knots and links of non-Abelian vortices that are topologically protected in the sense that they cannot be dissolved employing local reconnections and strand crossings. Importantly, the topologically protected links are supported by a variety of physical systems such as dilute Bose-Einstein condensates and liquid crystals. We also propose a classification scheme for topological vortex links, in which two structures are considered equivalent if they differ from each other by a sequence of topologically allowed reconnections and strand crossings, in addition to the typical continuous transformations. Interestingly, this scheme produces a remarkably simple classification. Ordered materials, such as liquid crystals and Bose-Einstein condensates, support topological vortices, which are analogous to vortices in water, but have qualitatively different properties. Here, the authors show that some links of topological vortices can exhibit much greater stability than analogous structures in water.