Non-local Skyrmions as topologically resilient quantum entangled states of light

Abstract

In the early 1960s, inspired by developing notions of topological structure, Tony Skyrme suggested that sub-atomic particles be described as natural excitations of a single quantum field. Although never adopted for its intended purpose, the notion of a skyrmion as a topologically stable field configuration has proven highly versatile, finding application in condensed matter physics, acoustics and more recently optics, but all realised as localised fields and particles. Here we report the first non-local quantum entangled state with a non-trivial topology that is skyrmionic in nature, even though each individual photon has no salient topological structure. We demonstrate how the topology of the quantum wavefunction makes such quantum states robust to entanglement decay, remaining intact until the entanglement itself vanishes. Our work points to a nascent connection between entanglement classes and topology, holding exciting promise for the creation and preservation of quantum information by topologically structured quantum states that persist even when entanglement is fragile.