Evidence for Skyrmions in the High-Temperature Superconductors

We claim that the charge density wave recently found by resonant soft X-ray scattering in layered copper oxides is the tetragonal symmetry defined by the distance between neighboring Cu³⁺ ions in the CuO₂ layer that determines the critical temperature. We find evidence that this tetragonal symmetry is a skyrmionic state, which is responsible for an unusual magnetic order and charge flow in the layers that leads to the breaking of the time reversal symmetry below the pseudogap line. The core of the skyrmions form pockets of local magnetic field piercing the superconducting layers in opposite direction to the rest of the unit cell.