Warping and interactions of vortices in exciton-polariton condensates

We investigate the properties of the vortex singularities in two-component exciton-polariton condensates in semiconductor microcavities in the presence of transverse-electric--transverse-magnetic (TE--TM) splitting of the lower polariton branch. This splitting does not change qualitatively the basic (lemon and star) geometry of half-quantum vortices (HQVs), but results in warping of both the polarization field and the supercurrent streamlines around these entities. The TE--TM splitting has a pronounced effect on the HQV energies and interactions, as well as on the properties of integer vortices, especially on the energy of the hedgehog polarization vortex. The energy of this vortex can become smaller than the energies of HQVs. This leads to modification of the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition from the proliferation of half-vortices to the proliferation of hedgehog-based vortex molecules.