Revealing the topological nature of entangled orbital angular momentum states of light.

ABSTRACT: Topology has emerged as a fundamental property of many systems yet mostly limited to low dimensions. Here, we reveal the hidden topology in entangled states carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM), in arbitrary dimensions. For two-dimensional systems, we demonstrate multiple skyrmion topologies and their equivalence to 't Hooft-Polyakov magnetic monopoles, experimentally connecting them to the Higgs field. In higher dimensions, we use non-Abelian gauge fields of SU(d) Yang-Mills theory to predict a rich tapestry of topological maps and their invariants, which we confirm experimentally for dimensionality up to seven, showing an underlying topology of 48 dimensions and a topological spectrum spanning over 17000 invariants. In addition to inducing robustness to perturbation, the topological s

SUBMITTER: de Mello Koch R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12701064 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature