Spinning bearing-shaped solitons in strongly nonlocal nonlinear media

Using the model of the so-called accessible solitons in nonlocal nonlinear media, we introduce a species of two-dimensional stable spatial solitons featuring the shape of spinning bearings (ring beams periodically modulated in the azimuthal direction). They are generated by a superposition of concentric vortices with widely different topological charges. The superposition of two vortices with identical or opposite signs of their charges generates annular chains of quasicircular or oval eddies, respectively, whereas stable multilayered annular solitons are formed by the superposition of more than two vortices. Beams with this structure may form all-optical photonic crystal fibers, and suggest the creation of new matter-wave patterns in Bose-Einstein condensates.