Rotating topological edge solitons

Abstract

We address the formation of topological edge solitons in rotating Su–Schrieffer–Heeger waveguide arrays. The linear spectrum of the non-rotating topological array is characterized by the presence of a topological gap with two edge states residing in it. Rotation of the array significantly modifies the spectrum and may move these edge states out of the topological gap. Defocusing nonlinearity counteracts this tendency and shifts such modes back into the topological gap, where they acquire the structure of tails typical of topological edge states. We present rich bifurcation structure for rotating topological solitons and show that they can be stable. Rotation of the topologically trivial array, without edge states in its spectrum, also leads to the appearance of localized edge states, but in a trivial semi-infinite gap. Families of rotating edge solitons bifurcating from the trivial linear edge states exist too, and sufficiently strong defocusing nonlinearity can also drive them into the topological gap, qualitatively modifying the structure of their tails.