Figure 1. Schematic structure of the Mott skyrmion.

(a) A Mott insulator (MI) core is surrounded by a superfluid (SF) shell with a skyrmion spin structure. Arrows denote the orientation of the nematic order parameter, in equation (1). The MI core stabilizes the skyrmion by keeping it from drifting out from the trap. (b) Schematic finite temperature phase diagram of strongly interacting bosons in an optical lattice. The red arrow shows the chemical potential as one moves from the center of the trapped skyrmion towards its edge. The MI has no magnetic structure at the temperatures considered.