We reveal the existence of asymmetric vortex solitons in ideally symmetric periodic lattices and show how such nonlinear localized structures describing elementary circular flows can be analyzed systematically using the energy-balance relations. We present the examples of rhomboid, rectangular, and triangular vortex solitons on a square lattice and also describe novel coherent states where the populations of clockwise and anticlockwise vortex modes change periodically due to a nonlinearity-induced momentum exchange through the lattice. Asymmetric vortex solitons are expected to exist in different nonlinear lattice systems, including optically induced photonic lattices, nonlinear photonic crystals, and Bose-Einstein condensates in optical lattices.

• Received 22 March 2004

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.93.063901