Within the class of field theories with the field contents of the Skyrme model, one submodel can be found which consists of the square of the baryon current and a potential term only. For this submodel, a Bogomolny bound exists and the static soliton solutions saturate this bound. Further, already on the classical level, this BPS Skyrme model reproduces some features of the liquid drop model of nuclei. Here, we investigate the model in more detail and, besides, we perform the rigid rotor quantization of the simplest Skyrmion (the nucleon). In addition, we discuss indications that the viability of the model as a low energy effective field theory for QCD is further improved in the limit of a large number of colors N_c.
We calculate the rotational-vibrational spectrum in the BPS Skyrme model for the hedgehog skyrmion with baryon number one. The resulting excitation energies for the nucleon and delta Roper resonances are slightly above their experimental values. Together with the fact that in the standard Skyrme model these excitation energies are significantly lower than the experimental ones, this provides strong evidence for the conjecture that the inclusion of the BPS Skyrme model is necessary for a successful quantitative description of physical properties of baryons and nuclei.
We use the classical BPS soliton solutions of the BPS Skyrme model together with corrections from the collective coordinate quantization of spin and isospin, the electrostatic Coulomb energies, and a small explicit breaking of the isospin symmetry - accounting for the proton-neutron mass difference - to calculate nuclear binding energies. We find that the resulting binding energies are already in excellent agreement with their physical values for heavier nuclei, demonstrating thereby that the BPS Skyrme model is a distinguished starting point for a detailed quantitative investigation of nuclea…
We continue the investigation of thermodynamical properties of the BPS Skyrme model. In particular, we analytically compute the baryon chemical potential both in the full field theory and in a mean-field approximation. In the full field theory case, we find that the baryon chemical potential is always exactly proportional to the baryon density, for arbitrary solutions. We further find that, in the mean-field approximation, the BPS Skyrme model approaches the Walecka model in the limit of high density - their thermodynamical functions as well as the equation of state agree in this limit. This f…
One problem in the application of the Skyrme model to nuclear physics is that it predicts too large a value for the compression modulus of nuclear matter. Here we investigate the thermodynamics of the BPS Skyrme model at zero temperature and calculate its equation of state. Among other results, we find that classically (i.e. without taking into account quantum corrections) the compressibility of BPS skyrmions is, in fact, infinite, corresponding to a zero compression modulus. This suggests that the inclusion of the BPS submodel into the Skyrme model lagrangian may significantly reduce this too…
Recently, within the space of generalized Skyrme models, a BPS submodel was identified which reproduces some bulk properties of nuclear matter already on a classical level and, as such, constitutes a promising field theory candidate for the detailed and reliable description of nuclei and hadrons. Here we extend and further develop these investigations by applying the model to the calculation of nuclear binding energies. Concretely, we calculate these binding energies by including the classical soliton energies, the excitation energies from the collective coordinate quantization of spin and iso…
The Skyrme model and its generalisations provide a conceptually appealing field-theory basis for the description of nuclear matter and, after its coupling to gravity, also of neutron stars. In particular, a specific Skyrme submodel, the so-called Bogomol'nyi-Prasad-Sommerfield (BPS) Skyrme model, allows both for an exact field-theoretic and a mean-field treatment of neutron stars, as a consequence of its perfect fluid property. A pure BPS Skyrme model description of neutron stars, however, only describes the neutron star core, by construction. Here we consider different possibilities to extrap…
In this review, we summarise the main features of the BPS Skyrme model which provides a physically well-motivated idealisation of atomic nuclei and nuclear matter: 1) it leads to zero binding energies for classical solitons (while realistic binding energies emerge owing to the semiclassical corrections, the Coulomb interaction and isospin breaking); 2) it describes a perfect non-barotropic fluid already at the microscopic (field theoretical) level which allows to study thermodynamics beyond the mean-field limit. These properties allow for an approximate but analytical calculation of binding en…
We study the baby Skyrme model as a theory that interpolates between two distinct BPS systems. For this a near-BPS approximation can be used which, however, involves a small deviation from each of the two BPS limits. We provide analytical explanation and numerical support for the validity of this approximation. We then study the set of all possible supersymmetric extensions of the baby Skyrme model with ${\cal N}=1$ and the particular ones with extended ${\cal N}=2$ supersymmetries and relate this to the above mentioned almost-BPS approximation.
We show that the standard Skyrme model without pion mass term can be expressed as a sum of two BPS submodels, i.e., of two models whose static field equations, independently, can be reduced to first order equations. Further, these first order (BPS) equations have nontrivial solutions, at least locally. These two submodels, however, cannot have common solutions. Our findings also shed some light on the rational map approximation. Finally, we consider certain generalisations of the BPS submodels.
We present a concrete model of a low energy effective field theory of QCD, the well-known Skyrme Model. Specifically, we will work with the BPS submodel in order to describe the binding energies of nuclei. This BPS Skyrme model is characterized by having a saturated bound for the energy proportional to the baryon number of the nuclei. After presenting this classical result, we will proceed with a semi-classical quantization of the coordinates of spin and isospin. Then, with the further inclusion of the Coulomb interaction as well as a small explicit breaking of the isospin symmetry, we finally…
We show that the BPS Skyrme model, as well as its (2+1) dimensional baby version (restricted), can be coupled with an impurity in the BPS preserving manner. The corresponding Bogomolny equations are derived.
Using the BPS Lagrangian method we show that all known BPS submodels of the generalized Skyrme model, with a particular ansatz for the fields content, can be devided into three groups based on the (effective) number of derivative-terms in the BPS submodels. We are able to derive rigorously the Bogomolny's equations of those BPS submodels. The resulting Bogomolny's equations, along with possible constraint equations, are in general forms in which some of the known BPS submodels may contain other possible non-trivial (non-vacuum) solutions then the ones found in the literature. Furthermore, we d…
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 …
Using the concept of strong necessary conditions (CSNC), we derive Bogomolny equations and BPS bounds for two modifications of the gauged baby BPS Skyrme model: the nonminimal coupling to the gauge field and k-deformed model. In particular, we study, how the Bogomolny equations and the equation for the potential, reflect these two modifications. In both examples, the CSNC method shows to be a very useful tool.
In this paper, we search for the BPS skyrmions in some BPS submodels of the generalized Skyrme model in five-dimensional spacetime using the BPS Lagrangian method. We focus on the static solutions of the Bogomolny's equations and their corresponding energies with topological charge $B>0$ is an integer. We consider two main cases based on the symmetry of the effective Lagrangian of the BPS submodels, i.e. the spherically symmetric and non-spherically symmetric cases. For the spherically symmetric case, we find two BPS submodels. The first BPS submodels consist of a potential term and a term pro…
We construct the $\mathcal{N}=2$ supersymmetric extensions of different models containing a Chern-Simons term and study their BPS structure. We find that the coupling of the Chern-Simons term to the general gauged nonlinear $σ$-model allows for general potentials depending on the Kähler metric and preserving two supersymmetries. We construct from supersymmetry the potentials that allow for BPS structures in different $\mathbb{C}P^{N}$ models coupled to Chern-Simons and Maxwell terms. We also couple the Chern-Simons term to a higher-derivative field theory (the baby Skyrme model) and study its …
The baby Skyrme model is a well-known nonlinear field theory supporting topological solitons in two space dimensions. Its action functional consists of a potential term, a kinetic term quadratic in derivatives (the "nonlinear sigma model term") and the Skyrme term quartic in first derivatives. The limiting case of vanishing sigma model term (the so-called BPS baby Skyrme model) is known to support exact soliton solutions saturating a BPS bound which exists for this model. Further, the BPS model has infinitely many symmetries and conservation laws. Recently it was found that the gauged version …
We investigate the relation between the BPS baby Skyrme model and its vector meson formulation, where the baby Skyrme term is replaced by a coupling between the topological current $B_μ$ and the vector meson field $ω_μ$. The vector model still possesses infinitely many symmetries leading to infinitely many conserved currents which stand behind its solvability. It turns out that the similarities and differences of the two models depend strongly on the specific form of the potential. We find, for instance, that compactons (which exist in the BPS baby Skyrme model) disappear from the spectrum of …
We study several deformations of the Skyrme model in three dimensions with self-dual sectors of arbitrary baryonic charge. We show that, for a family of background metrics as well as for a family of field dependent couplings, the model has one BPS sector, which may have any topological charge. We also study the gravitating case, where there are infinite BPS sectors, provided that a cosmological constant is added to the model.
We continue the investigation of supersymmetric extensions of baby Skyrme models in d=2+1 dimensions. In a first step, we show that the CP(1) form of the baby Skyrme model allows for the same N=1 SUSY extension as its O(3) formulation. Then we construct the N=1 SUSY extension of the gauged baby Skyrme model, i.e., the baby Skyrme model coupled to Maxwell electrodynamics. In a next step, we investigate the issue of N=2 SUSY extensions of baby Skyrme models. We find that all gauged and ungauged submodels of the baby Skyrme model which support BPS soliton solutions allow for an N=2 extension such…
We study the coupling of nuclear matter described by the BPS Skyrme model to generalized gravity. Concretely, we consider the Starobinsky model which provides the leading-order correction to the Einstein-Hilbert action. Static solutions describing neutron stars are found both for the full field theory and for the mean-field approximation. We always consider the full Starobinsky model in the nonperturbative approach, using appropriately generalized shooting methods for the numerical neutron star calculations. Many of our results are similar to previous investigations of neutron stars for the St…
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…
We present a systematic tool of derivation of the Bogomolny equation for the BPS Skyrme model. Furthermore, we find a generalization of the Bogomolny equation to the case corresponding with a non-zero value of the external pressure. The method is based on the concept of strong necessary conditions and can be applied to any Skyrme like theory.
Two recently found coupled BPS submodels of the Skyrme model are further analyzed. Firstly, we provide a geometrical formulation of the submodels in terms of the eigenvalues of the strain tensor. Secondly, we study their thermodynamical properties and show that the mean-field equations of state coincide at high pressure and read $p=\barρ/3$. We also provide evidence that matter described by the first BPS submodel has some similarity with a Bose-Einstein condensate. Moreover, we show that extending the second submodel to a non-BPS model by including certain additional terms of the full Skyrme m…
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).
In this talk, we give new insight into one of the best-known nonlinear field theories, the Skyrme model. We present some exact relevant solutions coming from different new versions (gauged BPS baby as well as vector BPS Skyrme models) giving rise to topological solitons, and highlighting the BPS character of the theory.
In this work we consider the higher dimensional Skyrme model, with spatial dimension $d > 3$, focusing on its BPS submodels and their corresponding features. To accommodate the cases with a higher topological degree, \(B\geq 1\), a modified generalized hedgehog ansatz is used where we assign an integer \(n_i\) for each rotational plane, resulting in a topological degree that proportional to product of these integers. It is found via BPS Lagrangian method that there are only two possible BPS submodels for this spherically symmetric ansatz which shall be called as BPS Skyrme model and scale-inva…
The baby Skyrme model is a well-known nonlinear field theory supporting topological solitons in two space dimensions. In the limit where the term quadratic in derivatives (the "sigma model term") vanishes some additional structure emerges. The resulting ("extreme" or "restricted" or "BPS") baby Skyrme model has exact soliton solutions saturating a BPS bound which exists for this restricted model. Further, the restricted model has infinitely many symmetries and infinitely many conservation laws. Here we consider the gauged version of the restricted baby Skyrme model with gauge group U(1) and th…
We demonstrate that the gauged BPS baby Skyrme model with a double vacuum potential allows for phase transitions from a non-solitonic to a solitonic phase, where the latter corresponds to a ferromagnetic liquid. Such a transition can be generated by increasing the external pressure $P$ or by turning on an external magnetic field $H$. As a consequence, the topological phase where gauged BPS baby skyrmions exist, is a higher density phase. For smaller densities, obtained for smaller values of $P$ and $H$, a phase without solitons is reached. We find the critical line in the $P,H$ parameter space…
We consider a version of the Skyrme model where both the kinetic term and the Skyrme term are multiplied by field-dependent coupling functions. For suitable choices, this "dielectric Skyrme model" has static solutions saturating the pertinent topological bound in the sector of baryon number (or topological charge) $B=\pm 1$ but not for higher $|B|$. This implies that higher charge field configurations are unbound, and loosely bound higher skyrmions can be achieved by small deformations of this dielectric Skyrme model. We provide a simple and explicit example for this possibility. Further, we s…
We construct supersymmetric extensions for different Skyrme-like models in 3+1 dimensions. BPS equations and BPS bounds are obtained from supersymmetry in some cases. We discuss also the emergence of several Skyrme-like models from supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory and Born-Infeld theory in 5 dimensions.
Using a solitonic model of nuclear matter, the BPS Skyrme model, we compare neutron stars obtained in the full field theory, where gravitational back reaction is completely taken into account, with calculations in a mean-field approximation using the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff approach. In the latter case, a mean-field-theory equation of state is derived from the original BPS field theory. We show that in the full field theory, where the energy density is non-constant even at equilibrium, there is no universal and coordinate independent equation of state of nuclear matter, in contrast to the m…
We analyze the vector meson formulation of the BPS Skyrme model in (3+1) dimensions, where the term of sixth power in first derivatives characteristic for the original, integrable BPS Skyrme model (the topological or baryon current squared) is replaced by a coupling between the vector meson $ω_μ$ and the baryon current. We find that the model remains integrable in the sense of generalized integrability and almost solvable (reducible to a set of two first order ODEs) for any value of the baryon charge. Further, we analyze the appearance of topological solitons for two one-parameter families of …
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 BPS baby Skyrme models are submodels of baby Skyrme models, where the nonlinear sigma model term is suppressed. They have skyrmion solutions saturating a BPS bound, and the corresponding static energy functional is invariant under area-preserving diffeomorphisms (APDs). Here we show that the solitons in the BPS baby Skyrme model, which carry a nontrivial topological charge $Q_{b} \in π_2(S^2)$ (a winding number), are dual to vortices in a BPS vortex model with a topological charge $Q_{v}\in π_1(S^1)$ (a vortex number), in the sense that there is a map between the BPS solutions of the two m…
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…
We study radial vibrations of spherically symmetric skyrmions in the BPS Skyrme model. Concretely, we numerically solve the linearised field equations for small fluctuations in a skyrmion background, both for linearly stable oscillations and for (unstable) resonances. This is complemented by numerical solutions of the full nonlinear system, which confirm all the results of the linear analysis. In all cases, the resulting fundamental excitation provides a rather accurate value for the Roper resonance, supporting the hypothesis that the BPS Skyrme model already gives a reasonable approximate des…
We consider a restricted baby Skyrme-Maxwell scenario enlarged via the inclusion of a nontrivial magnetic permeability. We then proceed with the minimization of its total energy by means of the Bogomol'nyi-Prasad-Sommerfield (BPS) prescription, from which we get that the self-dual potential now depends on the magnetic permeability itself. As a result, we obtain not only the lower bound for the energy, but also the self-dual equations whose solutions saturate that bound. In such a context, we focus our attention on those time-independent gauged skyrmions with radial symmetry and no electric cha…
A consistent ansatz for the Skyrme model in (3+1)-dimensions which is able to reduce the complete set of Skyrme field equations to just one equation for the profile in situations in which the Baryon charge can be arbitrary large is introduced: moreover, the field equation for the profile can be solved explicitly. Such configurations describe ordered arrays of Baryonic tubes living in flat space-times at finite density. The plots of the energy density (as well as of the Baryon density) clearly show that the regions of maximal energy density have the shape of a tube: the energy density and the B…
We consider the baby Skyrme model in a physically motivated limit of reaching the restricted or BPS baby Skyrme model, which is a model that enjoys area-preserving diffeomorphism invariance. The perturbation consists of the kinetic Dirichlet term with a small coefficient $ε$ as well as the standard pion mass term, with coefficient $εm_1^2$. The pions remain lighter than the soliton for any $ε$ and therefore the model is physically acceptable, even in the $ε\to 0$ limit. The version of the BPS baby Skyrme model we use has BPS solutions with Gaussian tails. We perform full numerical computations…
We study a Skyrme-type model with a potential term motivated by Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs), which we call the BEC Skyrme model. We consider two flavors of the model, the first is the Skyrme model and the second has a sixth-order derivative term instead of the Skyrme term; both with the added BEC-motivated potential. The model contains toroidally shaped Skyrmions and they are characterized by two integers P and Q, representing the winding numbers of two complex scalar fields along the toroidal and poloidal cycles of the torus, respectively. The baryon number is B=PQ. We find stable Skyrmi…
We consider the Skyrme model in the near-BPS limit. The BPS part is made of the sextic term plus a potential and the deformation is made of the standard massive Skyrme model controlled by a small parameter $ε\ll1$. In order to keep the perturbation under theoretical and computational control, we find a model for which BPS Skyrmions have compact support, henceforth denoted as compactons, and the spherically symmetric $B=1$ Skyrmion represents the most stable solution. We use the $ε$-expansion scheme to systematically calculate the corrections to the energy and compare with the exact numerical c…
We investigate and revisit certain aspects of relativistic baryons in the Skyrme model. Starting from static baryons in the helicity eigenstates, we generalize their wavefunctions to the non-static and relativistic regime. A new representation for gamma matrices in the SU(2) collective space is constructed and the corresponding Dirac equation is obtained. Furthermore, we extend the analysis of Adkins et al. concerning vector current vacuum expectation values for baryon states to arbitrary momenta and calculate baryon elastic form factors in a general framework exhibiting vector meson dominance…
An extended version of the BPS Skyrme model that admits time-dependent solutions is discussed. Initially, by introducing a power law at the original potential term of the BPS Skyrme model the existence, stability and structure of the corresponding solutions is investigated. Then, the frequencies and half-lifes of the radial oscillations of the constructed time-dependent solutions are determined.
Based on the observation that the skyrmion in Skyrme theory can be viewed as a dressed monopole, we show that the skyrmions have two independent topology, the baryon topology $π_3(S^3)$ and the monopole topology $π_2(S^2)$. With this we propose to classify the skyrmions by two topological numbers $(m,n)$, the monopole number $m$ and the shell (radial) number $n$. In this scheme the popular (non spherically symmetric) skyrmions are classified as the $(m,1)$ skyrmions but the spherically symmetric skyrmions are classified as the $(1,n)$ skyrmions, and the baryon number $B$ is given by $B=mn$. Mo…
We construct the first analytic self-gravitating Skyrmions with higher Baryon charge in four dimensions for the $SU(3)$-Skyrme-Einstein-$Λ$ theory by combining the generalized hedgehog ansatz with the approach developed by Balachandran et al. to describe the first (numerical) example of a non-embedded solution. These are genuine $SU(3)$ analytic solutions instead of trivial embeddings of $SU(2)$ into $SU(3)$ and its geometry is that of a Bianchi IX Universe. The Skyrme ansatz is chosen in such a way that the Skyrme field equations are identically satisfied in the sector with Baryon charge 4. T…
We propose a new Skyrme-like model with fields taking values on the sphere S^3 or, equivalently, on the group SU(2). The action of the model contains a quadratic kinetic term plus a quartic term which is the same as that of the Skyrme-Faddeev model. The novelty of the model is that it possess a first order Bogomolny type equation whose solutions automatically satisfy the second order Euler-Lagrange equations. It also possesses a lower bound on the static energy which is saturated by the Bogomolny solutions. Such Bogomolny equation is equivalent to the so-called force free equation used in plas…
We study the higher derivative chiral models with four supercharges and BPS states in these models. The off-shell Lagrangian generically includes higher powers of the auxiliary fields F which causes distinct on-shell branches associated with the solutions to the auxiliary fields equation. We point out that the model admits a supersymmetric completion of arbitrary higher derivative bosonic models of a single complex scalar field and an arbitrary scalar potential can be introduced even without superpotentials. As an example, we present a supersymmetric extension of the Faddeev-Skyrme model witho…
We introduce a variation of the Bose-Einstein condensate(BEC)-Skyrme model, with an altered potential for miscible BECs that gives rise to two physical vortex strings. In the ground state of each topological sector, the vortices are linked exactly $B$ times, due to a recently formulated theorem, with $B$ being the baryon number of the solution. The model also possesses metastable states, where the vortices are degenerate and do not lend the interpretation of the baryon number as the linking number of the vortices.
The noncommutative baby Skyrme model is a Moyal deformation of the two-dimensional sigma model plus a Skyrme term, with a group-valued or Grassmannian target. Exact abelian solitonic solutions have been identified analytically in this model, with a singular commutative limit. Inside any given Grassmannian, we establish a BPS bound for the energy functional, which is saturated by these baby Skyrmions. This asserts their stability for unit charge, as we also test in second-order perturbation theory.
We investigate the large baryon number sector of the Einstein-Skyrme model as a possible model for baryon stars. Gravitating hedgehog skyrmions have been investigated previously and the existence of stable solitonic stars excluded due to energy considerations. However, in this paper we demonstrate that by generating gravitating skyrmions using rational maps, we can achieve multi-baryon bound states whilst recovering spherical symmetry in the limit where B becomes large.
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…
Motivated by a class of near BPS Skyrme models introduced by Adam, Sánchez-Guillén and Wereszczyński, the following variant of the harmonic map problem is introduced: a map $ϕ:(M,g)\rightarrow (N,h)$ between Riemannian manifolds is restricted harmonic (RH) if it locally extremizes $E_2$ on its $SDiff(M)$ orbit, where $SDiff(M)$ denotes the group of volume preserving diffeomorphisms of $(M,g)$, and $E_2$ denotes the Dirichlet energy. It is conjectured that near BPS skyrmions tend to RH maps in the BPS limit. It is shown that $ϕ$ is RH if and only if $ϕ^*h$ has exact divergence, and a linear sta…
Using the concept of strong necessary conditions (CSNC), we derive a complete decomposition of the minimal Skyrme model into a sum of three coupled BPS submodels with the same topological bound. The bounds are saturated if corresponding Bogomolny equations, different for each submodel, are obeyed.
