{"paper":{"title":"Tunable spatio-spectral Target Skyrmions and topological multiplexing","license":"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/","headline":"A single optical beam can carry three distinct Skyrmion numbers at different radii by coupling wavelength, space, and polarization.","cross_cats":[],"primary_cat":"physics.optics","authors_text":"Andrew Forbes, Isaac Nape, Niladri Modak, Oussama Korichi, Pedro Ornelas, Robert Fickler","submitted_at":"2026-05-14T06:37:49Z","abstract_excerpt":"Optical Skyrmions have recently garnered much interest providing a potential avenue for high capacity, robust topological information transfer. Typically, Skyrmions are derived from the coupling of just two degrees of freedom (DoFs) limiting their versatility. In this work we realize spatio-spectral Skyrmions derived from the non-separability between three DoFs: wavelength, space and polarization. A compact and simple technique is used to generate the spatio-spectral vector beams (SSVB) carrying the desired Skyrmionic structure, offering simple pathways for complex Skyrmionic beam design. The "},"claims":{"count":4,"items":[{"kind":"strongest_claim","text":"We experimentally demonstrate the practicality of this approach by transmitting and receiving three distinct Skyrmion numbers encoded into a single topological field, for the first form of mode division multiplexing with Skyrmion topology.","source":"verdict.strongest_claim","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C1","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"weakest_assumption","text":"The non-separability of wavelength, space, and polarization can be engineered so that distinct Skyrmion numbers appear at different radii with negligible crosstalk and remain independently addressable after propagation.","source":"verdict.weakest_assumption","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C2","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"one_line_summary","text":"Three-degree-of-freedom spatio-spectral Skyrmions enable independent encoding of distinct Skyrmion numbers at different radii in one optical field, demonstrated experimentally as topological multiplexing.","source":"verdict.one_line_summary","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C3","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"headline","text":"A single optical beam can carry three distinct Skyrmion numbers at different radii by coupling wavelength, space, and polarization.","source":"verdict.pith_extraction.headline","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C4","attestation":"unclaimed"}],"snapshot_sha256":"01dcd5d43a50656d5d64c84e6a60996d41cfd46bf410f9839cce5f337f1d6f28"},"source":{"id":"2605.14441","kind":"arxiv","version":1},"verdict":{"id":"ceb3cbb9-df82-496d-a937-100a636c5789","model_set":{"reader":"grok-4.3"},"created_at":"2026-05-15T02:09:28.845587Z","strongest_claim":"We experimentally demonstrate the practicality of this approach by transmitting and receiving three distinct Skyrmion numbers encoded into a single topological field, for the first form of mode division multiplexing with Skyrmion topology.","one_line_summary":"Three-degree-of-freedom spatio-spectral Skyrmions enable independent encoding of distinct Skyrmion numbers at different radii in one optical field, demonstrated experimentally as topological multiplexing.","pipeline_version":"pith-pipeline@v0.9.0","weakest_assumption":"The non-separability of wavelength, space, and polarization can be engineered so that distinct Skyrmion numbers appear at different radii with negligible crosstalk and remain independently addressable after propagation.","pith_extraction_headline":"A single optical beam can carry three distinct Skyrmion numbers at different radii by coupling wavelength, space, and polarization."},"references":{"count":58,"sample":[{"doi":"","year":1962,"title":"A unified field theory of mesons and baryons,","work_id":"dbc4c963-2048-4380-9eb5-eea9229225ac","ref_index":1,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false},{"doi":"","year":1986,"title":"I. Zahed and G. Brown, “The skyrme model,”Physics Reports, vol. 142, no. 1, pp. 1–102, 1986","work_id":"9608cc1f-7570-4ff3-940e-fb64adbe620f","ref_index":2,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false},{"doi":"","year":2018,"title":"Skyrmions and clustering in light nuclei,","work_id":"866c5a32-207c-4fd8-85bd-55ca39efff6a","ref_index":3,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false},{"doi":"","year":1989,"title":"The use of skyrmions for two-nucleon systems,","work_id":"4f154fb8-95b8-43af-b76f-db401d983990","ref_index":4,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false},{"doi":"","year":2009,"title":"Creation and detection of skyrmions in a bose-einstein condensate,","work_id":"01ec82e9-e817-4e0d-aba6-2eada6224277","ref_index":5,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false}],"resolved_work":58,"snapshot_sha256":"9eb93854e7f95a9880c9b02116e4f15b60e7e64448c457c2b11a9391b4eda2c0","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":1,"snapshot_sha256":"83c697278086d699af447151aaddd4c5e6c1acdc810736ee772dc8cff089672d"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}