Creation of skyrmions in a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate

We propose a scheme for the creation of skyrmions (coreless vortices) in a Bose-Einstein condensate with hyperfine spin F = 1. In this scheme, four traveling-wave laser beams, with Gaussian or Laguerre-Gaussian transverse profiles, induce Raman transitions with an anomalous dependence on the laser polarization, thereby generating the optical potential required for producing skyrmions.