标题： 粒子状手性向列型涡旋纽结的融合与分裂 显示英文标题

标题： Fusion and Fission of Particle-like Chiral Nematic Vortex Knots

摘要： 涡旋纽结在许多物理系统中已被观察到衰减。 在这里，我们描述了拓扑保护的涡旋纽结，它们保持稳定，并在保守类似于重子数的拓扑不变量的同时发生融合和分裂。 虽然宿主介质，一种手性向列相液晶，表现出内在的手性，但涡旋线的核心是结构上无手性的区域，其中扭曲无法定义。 我们将它们称为“非手性化”涡旋线，这与有序介质中的位错和取向缺陷类似，分别破坏了位置秩序和取向秩序。 这些涡旋纽结的融合和分裂，我们可以通过电脉冲可逆地切换，生动地揭示了纽结理论概念如纽结的连接和的物理体现。 我们的发现为从宇宙学到粒子物理的有关现象提供了见解，并可以在电光和光子学领域实现应用，其中这种融合和分裂过程可用于控制光。 显示英文摘要

摘要： Vortex knots have been seen decaying in many physical systems. Here we describe topologically protected vortex knots, which remain stable and undergo fusion and fission while conserving a topological invariant analogous to that of baryon number. While the host medium, a chiral nematic liquid crystal, exhibits intrinsic chirality, cores of the vortex lines are structurally achiral regions where twist cannot be defined. We refer to them as "dischiralation" vortex lines, in analogy to dislocations and disclinations in ordered media where, respectively, positional and orientational order is disrupted. Fusion and fission of these vortex knots, which we reversibly switch by electric pulses, vividly reveal the physical embodiments of knot theory's concepts like connected sums of knots. Our findings provide insights into related phenomena in fields ranging from cosmology to particle physics and can enable applications in electro-optics and photonics, where such fusion and fission processes can be used for controlling light.