2011/03/31 by Marc Gillioz · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Coset #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Group (periodic table) #Homotopy #Homotopy group #Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories #Skyrmion #Symmetry (geometry) #Toroid #Winding number #hep-ph #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/jhep09(2011)014
published in Journal of High Energy Physics 2011(9) (Springer Nature) · 14 pages, 3 figures; v2: discussion improved
arxiv created 2011/07/04 · openalex publication_date 2011/09/01 · arxiv updated 2011/09/23 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We construct the skyrmion solutions appearing in the coset spaces SU(N)/SO(N) for N > 2 and compute their classical mass. For N = 3, the third homotopy group pi3(SU(3)/SO(3)) = Z4 implies the existence of two distinct solutions: the skyrmion of winding number two has spherical symmetry and is found to be the lightest non-trivial field configuration; the skyrmion and antiskyrmion of winding number plus and minus one are slightly heavier and of toroidal shape. For N >= 4, there is only one skyrmion since the third homotopy group is Z2. It is found to have spherical symmetry and is significantly lighter than the N = 3 solutions.