Dissipative ring solitons with vorticity.

We study dissipative ring solitons with vorticity in the frame of the (2+1)-dimensional cubic-quintic complex Ginzburg-Landau equation. In dissipative media, radially symmetric ring structures with any vorticity m can be stable in a finite range of parameters. Beyond the region of stability, the solitons lose the radial symmetry but may remain stable, keeping the same value of the topological charge. We have found bifurcations into solitons with n-fold bending symmetry, with n independent on m. Solitons without circular symmetry can also display (m + 1)-fold modulation behaviour. A sequence of bifurcations can transform the ring soliton into a pulsating or chaotic state which keeps the same value of the topological charge as the original ring.