We review the SU(2) Skyrme model and describe its topological soliton solutions, which are called Skyrmions. Skyrmions provide a model of nuclei in which the conserved topological charge is identified with the baryon number of a nucleus. The semiclassical quantum theory of Skyrmions, in which they are treated as rigid bodies spinning in space and isospace, is described. We derive the energy spectra corresponding to various light nuclei, and predict a few new states. We also calculate the electromagnetic form factors describing the structure of the alpha-particle and lithium-6. Our recent reparametrization of the model gives results that are in reasonable quantitative agreement with experiment.
Starting from solutions of the lightly-bound Skyrme model, we construct many new Skyrmion solutions of the standard Skyrme model with tetrahedral or octahedral symmetry. These solutions are closely related to weight diagrams of the group SU(4), which enables us to systematically derive some geometric and energetic properties of the Skyrmions, up to baryon number 85. We discuss the rigid body quantization of these Skyrmions, and compare the results with properties of a selection of observed nuclei.
We consider the rigid body quantization of Skyrmions with topological charges 1 to 8, as approximated by the rational map ansatz. Novel, general expressions for the elements of the inertia tensors, in terms of the approximating rational map, are presented and are used to determine the kinetic energy contribution to the total energy of the ground and excited states of the quantized Skyrmions. Our results are compared to the experimentally determined energy levels of the corresponding nuclei, and the energies and spins of a few as yet unobserved states are predicted.
One of the outstanding problems in modern nuclear physics is to determine the properties of nuclei from the fundamental theory of the strong force, quantum chromodynamics (QCD). Skyrmions offer a novel approach to this problem by considering nuclei as solitons of a low energy effective field theory obtained from QCD. Unfortunately, the standard theory of Skyrmions has been plagued by two significant problems, in that it yields nuclear binding energies that are an order of magnitude larger than experimental nuclear data, and it predicts intrinsic shapes for nuclei that fail to match the cluster…
A fully quantized field theory is developped for the skyrmion topological excitations of the O(3) symmetric CP$^1$-Nonlinear Sigma Model in 2+1D. The method allows for the obtainment of arbitrary correlation functions of quantum skyrmion fields. The two-point function is evaluated in three different situations: a) the pure theory; b) the case when it is coupled to fermions which are otherwise non-interacting and c) the case when an electromagnetic interaction among the fermions is introduced. The quantum skyrmion mass is explicitly obtained in each case from the large distance behavior of the …
We compute new solutions of the Skyrme model with massive pions. Concentrating on baryon numbers which are a multiple of four, we find low energy Skyrmion solutions which are composed of charge four sub-units, as in the alpha-particle model of nuclei. We summarize our current understanding of these solutions, and discuss their relationship to configurations in the alpha-particle model.
In the Skyrme model atomic nuclei are modelled as quantized soliton solutions in a nonlinear field theory of pions. The mass number is given by the conserved topological charge $B$ of the solitons. Conventionally, Skyrmions are semiclassically quantized within the rigid body approach. In this approach Skyrmions are effectively treated as rigid rotors in space and isospace that is it is assumed that Skyrmions do not deform at all when they spin and isospin. This approximation resulted in qualitative and encouraging quantitative agreement with experimental nuclear physics data. In this talk, we …
The role of rescaling (expansion or squeezing) of quantized skyrmions is studied for the spectrum of baryons beginning with nucleon and $Δ(1232)$, and with flavors strangeness, charm or beauty. The expansion of skyrmions due to the centrifugal forces has influence on the masses of baryons without flavor ($N$ and especially $Δ$). The rescaling of skyrmions has smaller influence on the spectrum of strange baryons, it is more important for the case of charm, and is crucial for baryons with beauty quantum number, where strong squeezing takes place. Two competing tendencies are clearly observed: ex…
The scattering of electrons off nuclei is one of the best methods of probing nuclear structure. In this paper we focus on electron scattering off nuclei with spin and isospin zero within the Skyrme model. We consider two distinct methods and simplify our calculations by use of the Born approximation. The first method is to calculate the form factor of the spherically averaged Skyrmion charge density; the second uses the Patterson function to calculate the scattering intensity off randomly oriented Skyrmions, and spherically averages at the end. We compare our findings with experimental scatter…
Skyrmions with a realistic value of the pion mass parameter are expected to be quite compact structures, but beyond baryon number B=8 only a few examples are known. The largest of these is the cubically symmetric B=32 Skyrmion which is a truncated piece of the Skyrme crystal. Here it is proposed that many more such Skyrmions could be found, without any restriction on the baryon number, as pieces of the Skyrme crystal. Particular attention is given to the possibility of reducing B by 1 by chopping a corner off a cubic crystal chunk. Nuclei are modelled by Skyrmions with quantised spin and isosp…
The classical $B=5$ Skyrmion can be approximated by a two-cluster system where a $B=1$ Skyrmion is attached to a core $B=4$ Skyrmion. We quantise this system, allowing the $B=1$ to freely orbit the core. The configuration space is 11-dimensional but simplifies significantly after factoring out the overall spin and isospin degrees of freedom. We exactly solve the free quantum problem and then include an interaction potential between the Skyrmions numerically. The resulting energy spectrum is compared to the corresponding nuclei -- the Helium-5/Lithium-5 isodoublet. We find approximate parity do…
We consider the semiclassical rigid-body quantization of Skyrmion solutions of mass numbers B = 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12. We determine the allowed quantum states for each Skyrmion, and find that they often match the observed states of nuclei. The spin and isospin inertia tensors of these Skyrmions are accurately calculated for the first time, and are used to determine the excitation energies of the quantum states. We calculate the energy level splittings, using a suitably chosen parameter set for each mass number. We find good qualitative and encouraging quantitative agreement with experiment. In pa…
Semiclassical quantization of the SU(3)-skyrmions is performed by means of the collective coordinate method. The quantization condition known for the SU(2)-solitons quantized with SU(3) collective coordinates is generalized for the SU(3) skyrmions with strangeness content different from zero. Quantization of the dipole-type configuration with large strangeness content found recently is considered as an example, the spectrum and the mass splitting of the quantized states are estimated. The energy and baryon number density of SU(3) skyrmions are presented in the form emphasizing their symmetry i…
The relatively small binding energy in nuclei suggests that they may be well represented by near-BPS Skyrmions since their mass is roughly proportional to the baryon number $A.$ For that purpose, we propose a generalization of the Skyrme model with terms up to order six in derivatives of the pion fields and treat the nonlinear $σ$ and Skyrme terms as small perturbations. For our special choice of mass term (or potential) $V$, we obtain well-behaved analytical BPS-type solutions with non-shell configurations for the baryon density, as opposed to the more complex shell-like configurations found …
Electroweak form factors of large nuclei as BPS skyrmions
Universidad de Santiago de Compostela（圣地亚哥德孔波斯特拉大学）；Instituto Galego de Física de Altas Enerxias (IGFAE)（加利西亚高能物理研究所）；University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU（巴斯克地区大学）；Universidade de Vigo（维戈大学）
The Skyrme model is a classical field theory which models the strong interaction between atomic nuclei. It has to be quantized in order to compare it to nuclear physics. When the Skyrme model is semi-classically quantized it is important to take the Finkelstein-Rubinstein constraints into account. The aim of this paper is to show how to calculate these FR constraints directly from the rational map ansatz using basic homotopy theory. We then apply this construction in order to quantize the Skyrme model in the simplest approximation, the zero mode quantization. This is carried out for up to 22 n…
In the framework of Dirac quantization, the SU(2) Skyrmion is canonically quantized to yield the modified predictions of the static properties of baryons. We show that the energy spectrum of this Skyrmion obtained by the Dirac method with the suggestion of generalized momenta is consistent with the result of the Batalin-Fradkin-Tyutin formalism.
The quantization condition derived previously for SU(2) solitons quantized with SU(3)-collective coordinates is generalized for SU(3) skyrmions with strangeness content different from zero. Quantization of the dipole-type configuration with large strangeness content found recently is considered as an example.
In the semi-classical approach to the Skyrme model, nuclei are approximated by quantum mechanical states on a finite-dimensional space of field configurations; in zero-mode quantization this space is generated by rotations and isorotations. Here, simulated annealing is used to find the axially symmetric Skyrme configuration which extremizes the zero-mode quantized energy for the nucleon.
The Skyrme model is a nonlinear classical field theory which models the strong interaction between atomic nuclei. In order to compare the predictions of the Skyrme model with nuclear physics, it has to be quantized. We show, summarizing earlier work, how the rational map ansatz can be employed to calculate the Finkelstein-Rubinstein constraints which arise during quantization. Then we give an overview of current results on the quantum ground states in the Skyrme model. We end with an outlook on future work.
In the Skyrme model, the Lagrangian can be quantized in several ways using the collective coordinate approach. Not all of which produce quantum states that can be interpreted as physical particles. For example the SU(2) collective coordinate approach produces both integral and half-integral spin and isospin states. Only half of these are the physical baryons. Less well known is the fact that it is equally possible to quantize the system using the SO(3) collective coordinates. This produces only unphysical integral spin and isospin states. To fulfill the goal of being able to express a classica…
The spin-orbit force is a vital tool in describing finite nuclei and nucleon interactions; however its microscopic origin is not fully understood. In this paper we study a model inspired by Skyrmions which provides a classical explanation of the force. To simplify the calculations the Skyrmions are approximated as two-dimensional rigid discs which behave like quantum cogwheels.
We investigate how isospin affects the geometrical shape and energy of classical soliton solutions of topological charges $B=1-4,8$ in the Skyrme model. The novel approach in our work is that we study classically isospinning Skyrmions beyond the rigid-body approximation; that is, we explicitly allow the soliton solutions to deform and to break the symmetries of the static configurations. Our fully three-dimensional relaxation calculations reveal that the symmetries of isospinning Skyrme solitons can differ significantly from the ones of the static configurations. In particular, isospinning Sky…
We show that a multiply-quantized vortex line core can be energetically stable in a harmonically trapped two-component atomic Bose-Einstein condensate. The structure, in which the condensate component with the vortex line is surrounded by the second component forming a vortex ring, can be identified as a particlelike Skyrmion with a multiply-quantized winding number, and closely resembles cosmic vortons.
In the Skyrme model with massless pions, the minimal energy multi-Skyrmions are shell-like, with the baryon density localized on the edges of a polyhedron that is approximately spherical and generically of the fullerene-type. In this paper we show that in the Skyrme model with massive pions these configurations are unstable for sufficiently large baryon number. Using numerical simulations of the full nonlinear field theory, we show that these structures collapse to form qualitatively different stable Skyrmion solutions. These new Skyrmions have a flat structure and display a clustering phenome…
It is well-known that the winding number of the Skyrmion can be identified as the baryon number. We show in this paper that this result can also be established using the Atiyah-Singer index theorem and spectral flow arguments. We argue that this proof suggests that there are light quarks moving in the field of the Skyrmion. We then show that if these light degrees of freedom are averaged out, the low energy excitations of the Skyrmion are in fact spinorial. A natural consequence of our approach is the prediction of a $(1/2)^{-}$ state and its excitations in addition to the nucleon and delta. U…
A new type of gauged BPS baby Skyrme model is presented, where the derivative term is just the Schroers current (i.e., gauge invariant and conserved version of the topological current) squared. This class of models has a topological bound saturated for solutions of the pertinent Bogomolnyi equations supplemented by a so-called superpotential equation. In contrast to the gauged BPS baby Skyrme models considered previously, the superpotential equation is linear and, hence, completely solvable. Furthermore, the magnetic flux is quantized in units of $2π$, which allows, in principle, to define thi…
The Skyrme model is a non-linear field theory whose solitonic solutions, once quantised, describe atomic nuclei. The classical static soliton solutions, so-called Skyrmions, have interesting discrete symmetries and can only be calculated numerically. Mathematically, these Skyrmions can be viewed as maps between to two three-manifolds and, as such, their stable singularities can only be folds, cusps and swallowtails. Physically, the occurrence of singularities is related to negative baryon density. In this paper, we calculate the charge three Skyrmion to a high resolution in order to examine it…
Recently, it has been shown that (4+1)-dimensional Yang-Mills theory may be written as a (3+1)-dimensional BPS Skyrme model, in which the Skyrme field is coupled to an infinite tower of vector mesons. Truncating this tower to a single vector meson yields an extension of the standard Skyrme model to a theory of pions coupled to the rho meson, with the significant simplification that no additional free parameters are introduced. The present paper is concerned with this truncated theory and results are presented for Skyrmions with baryon numbers one to four. The approach involves the use of an ex…
The Skyrme model is a classical field theory modelling the strong interaction between atomic nuclei. It has to be quantized in order to compare it to nuclear physics. When the Skyrme model is semi-classically quantized it is important to take the Finkelstein-Rubinstein constraints into account. Recently, a simple formula has been derived to calculate the these constraints for Skyrmions which are well-approximated by rational maps. However, if a pion mass term is included in the model, Skyrmions of sufficiently large baryon number are no longer well-approximated by the rational map ansatz. This…
A problem with the standard Skyrme model is that Skyrmion binding energies are around $15\%$, being much larger than the order $1\%$ binding energies of the nuclei that they aim to describe. Here we consider theories that extend the standard Skyrme model of pions by including rho mesons, via dimensional deconstruction of Yang-Mills theory with an extra dimension. We report the first results of parallel numerical computations of multi-Skyrmions in theories of this type, including a model that reduces Skyrmion energies below those of the standard Skyrme model whilst retaining exactly the same Fa…
We analyze the high energy scattering of hadrons in QCD in an effective theory model inspired from a gravity dual description. The nucleons are skyrmion-like solutions of a DBI action, and boosted nucleons give pions field shockwaves necessary for the saturation of the Froissart bound. Nuclei are analogs of BIon crystals, with the DBI skyrmions forming a fluid with a fixed inter-nucleon distance. In shockwave collisions one creates scalar (pion field) ``fireballs'' with horizons of nonzero temperature, whose scaling with mass we calculated. They are analogous to the hydrodynamic ``dumb holes,'…
We present numerical evidence that suggests the introduction of a non-zero pion mass might dramatically affect the structure of minimal energy Skyrmions. It appears that the shell-like Skyrmions which are the minima when the pions are massless can fail to be minimal energy bound states for particular baryon numbers, with a strong dependence upon the value of the pion mass. The effects of a pion mass may include the replacement of shell-like configurations with crystal chunks and the loss of shell-like bound states with baryon numbers five and eight; which is in agreement with expectations base…
The Skyrme model has two Skyrmion solutions of baryon number $12$, with $D_{3h}$ and $D_{4h}$ symmetries. The first has an equilateral triangular shape and the second an extended linear shape, analogous to the triangle and linear chain structures of three alpha particles. We recalculate the moments of inertia of these Skyrmions, and deduce the energies and spins of their quantized rotational excitations. There is a good match with the ground-state band of Carbon-12, and with the recently established rotational band of the Hoyle state. The ratio of the root mean square matter radii also matches…
We show that a suitable choice for the potential term in the two-dimensional baby Skyrme model yields solitons that have a short-range repulsion and a long-range attraction. The solitons are therefore aloof, in the sense that static multi-soliton bound states have constituents that preserve their individual identities and are sufficiently far apart that tail interactions yield small binding energies. The static multi-soliton solutions are found to have a cluster structure that is reproduced by a simple binary species particle model. In the standard three-dimensional Skyrme model of nuclei, sol…
The low-energy dynamics of pions and magnons -- the Goldstone bosons of the strong interactions and of magnetism -- are analogous in many ways. The electroweak interactions of pions result from gauging an SU(2)_L x U(1)_Y symmetry which then breaks to the U(1)_{em} gauge symmetry of electromagnetism. The electromagnetic interactions of magnons arise from gauging not only U(1)_{em} but also the SU(2)_s spin rotational symmetry, with the electromagnetic fields E and B appearing as non-Abelian vector potentials. Pions couple to electromagnetism through a Goldstone-Wilczek current that represents …
Some time ago, Atiyah and Manton observed that computing the holonomy of Yang-Mills instantons yields good approximations to static Skyrmion solutions of the Skyrme model. This paper provides an extension and explanation of this result, by proving that instanton holonomies produce exact solutions of a BPS Skyrme model, in which the Skyrme field is coupled to a tower of vector mesons. Neglecting any (or indeed all) of the vector mesons breaks the scale invariance and removes the BPS property of the Skyrmions. However, it is shown that a truncation of the BPS Skyrme theory, in which only the fir…
The aloof baby Skyrme model is a (2+1)-dimensional theory with solitons that are lightly bound. It is a low-dimensional analogue of a similar Skyrme model in (3+1)-dimensions, where the lightly bound solitons have binding energies comparable to nuclei. A previous study of static solitons in the aloof baby Skyrme model revealed that multi-soliton bound states have a cluster structure, with constituents that preserve their individual identities due to the short-range repulsion and long-range attraction between solitons. Furthermore, there are many different local energy minima that are all well-…
The BPS Skyrme model has been demonstrated already to provide a physically intriguing and quantitatively reliable description of nuclear matter. Indeed, the model has both the symmetries and the energy-momentum tensor of a perfect fluid, and thus represents a field theoretic realization of the "liquid droplet" model of nuclear matter. In addition, the classical soliton solutions together with some obvious corrections (spin-isospin quantization, Coulomb energy, proton-neutron mass difference) provide an accurate modeling of nuclear binding energies for heavier nuclei. These results lead to the …
In this talk, we describe recent developments in the Skyrme model. Our main focus is on discussing various effects which need to be taken into account, when calculating the properties of light atomic nuclei in the Skyrme model. We argue that an important step is to understand "spinning Skyrmions" and discuss the theory of relative equilibria in this context.
We formulate point-particle effective field theory (PPEFT) for relativistic spin-half fermions interacting with a massive, charged finite-sized source using a first-quantized effective field theory for the heavy compact object and a second-quantized language for the lighter fermion with which it interacts. This description shows how to determine the near-source boundary condition for the Dirac field in terms of the relevant physical properties of the source, and reduces to the standard choices in the limit of a point source. Using a first-quantized effective description is appropriate when the…
The BPS Skyrme model is a specific subclass of Skyrme-type field theories which possesses both a BPS bound and infinitely many soliton solutions (skyrmions) saturating that bound, a property that makes the model a very convenient first approximation to the study of some properties of nuclei and hadrons. A related property, the existence of a large group of symmetry transformations, allows for solutions of rather general shapes, among which some of them will be relevant to the description of physical nuclei. We study here the classical symmetries of the BPS Skyrme model, applying them to constr…
Within the set of generalized Skyrme models, we identify a submodel which has both infinitely many symmetries and a Bogomolny bound which is saturated by infinitely many exact soliton solutions. Concretely, the submodel consists of the square of the baryon current and a potential term only. Further, already on the classical level, this BPS Skyrme model reproduces some features of the liquid drop model of nuclei. Here, we review the properties of the model and we discuss the semiclassical quantization of the simplest Skyrmion (the nucleon).
