Syncopated Bessel beams

Abstract

We introduce the syncopated Bessel beam, a new class of exact solutions to the paraxial equation obtained by means of a sinusoidal modulation of the azimuthal phase at the source. This modulation imposes a phase rhythm that deliberately breaks the azimuthal symmetry, analogous to musical syncopation, and triggers a topological transformation that deflects the propagation trajectory and shifts the beam's center of symmetry off the optical axis, while preserving its self-scaling invariance that can be explained by the Madelung-Bohm formalism. An exact analytical framework, supported by experimental validation, reveals the intrinsic structural robustness and preservation of topological properties through propagation.