Charge flipping vortices in the discrete nonlinear Schrödinger trimer and hexamer

We examine the existence and properties of charge flipping vortices (CFVs), vortices which periodically flip the topological charge, in three-site (trimer) and six-site (hexamer) discrete nonlinear Schrödinger lattices. We demonstrate numerically that CFVs exist as exact quasiperiodic solutions in continuous families which connect two different stationary solutions without topological charge, and that it is possible to interpret the dynamics of certain CFVs as the result of perturbations of these stationary solutions. The CFVs are calculated with high numerical accuracy and we may therefore accurately determine many of their properties, such as their energy and linear stability, and the CFVs are found to be stable over large parameter regimes. We also show that, like in earlier studies for lattices with a multiple of four sites, trimer and hexamer CFVs can be obtained by perturbing stationary constant amplitude vortices with certain linear eigenmodes. However, in contrast to the former case where the perturbation could be infinitesimal, the magnitude of the perturbations for trimers and hexamers must overcome a quite large threshold value. These CFVs may be interpreted as exact quasiperiodic CFVs, with a small perturbation applied. The concept of a charge flipping energy barrier is introduced and discussed.