vortex–antivortex pair with $a/\xi=2$ (upper panel) and $a=1.5\xi$ (lower panel).

![\[LDOSvv\] (Color online) The normalized LDOS profile in a two–vortex system for $a/\xi=1.5$ (a) and $a/\xi=1$ (b) calculated for $\nu=0.06\Delta_0$. Positions of vortices are marked by red crosses.](vv.eps){width="1.0\linewidth"}

![\[LDOSvav\] (Color online) The normalized LDOS profile in a vortex–antivortex system for $a/\xi=2$ (a) and $a/\xi=1.5$ (b) calculated for $\nu=0.06\Delta_0$. Positions of vortices are marked by red crosses.](vav.eps){width="1.0\linewidth"}

In Fig. \[LDOSvv\] it is shown how the LDOS profile gradually transforms from a two-peaked structure corresponding to two isolated vortices (upper panel) to the axially symmetric ring for a doubly quantized vortex. The positions of the phase singularity points are shown on the contour plot by red crosses. It can be seen that even when the distance between the vortices exceeds the size of the vortex core the positions of the LDOS peaks do not coincide with the vortex centers. The distance between the LDOS peaks reduces slower than the size $a$ of the vortex molecule and finally the peaks are smeared into the anisotropic ring structure (see Fig. \[LDOSvv\]b). The anisotropy vanishes and the ring becomes axially symmetric when vortices merge into a doubly quantized vortex.

The evolution of the LDOS profile 