Surface-pinned nonsingular topologically charged defects in nanoplasmonics

We discuss surface-pinned, topologically charged, nonsingular defects (SD) in light scattering by a plasmonic object. They follow from exact Maxwell boundary conditions and are purely topological—unaffected by surface forces. At optical frequencies, in (quasi) 2D, they appear in the electric and Poynting vector fields for $H^{(z)}$ polarization, not for $E^{(z)}$. Exact solutions for a circular cylinder reveal topological charge-conserving bifurcations involving SDs with bulk singularities or SDs alone, and contraction of defect regions under loss.