Rydberg-induced vortices: Self-trapping matter waves in supersolid spin-orbit-coupled Bose gases

Vortices as fundamental topological excitations are ubiquitous in nature and have attracted great interest in diverse contexts of science and engineering. We find a variety of novel topological defects in Rydbergdressed Bose gas with spin-orbit coupling theoretically. A quantized vortex spontaneously breaks its azimuthal invariance, leading to the formation of discrete vortex around the supersolid crystal cells with discrete rotational symmetry. For strongly interacting case, high-order vortex characterized by a nonzero radial quantum number, can be stabilized in the unit cell within the supersolid phase. These topological defects are self-trapping and sustained by balancing the nonlocal Rydberg interaction and spin-orbit coupling, which are generally inaccessible in a conventional superfluid and observable by in situ imaging.