Spin textures in slowly rotating Bose-Einstein condensates

Slowly rotating spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates are studied through a variational approach based upon lowest Landau level calculus. The author finds that in a gas with ferromagnetic interactions, such as ⁸⁷Rb, angular momentum is predominantly carried by clusters of two different types of skyrmion textures in the spin-vector order parameter. Conversely, in a gas with antiferromagnetic interactions, such as ²³Na, angular momentum is carried by π disclinations in the nematic order parameter which arises from spin fluctuations. For experimentally relevant parameters, the cores of these π disclinations are ferromagnetic, and can be imaged with polarized light.