Hartree-Fock theory of Skyrmions in quantum Hall ferromagnets

Abstract

We report on a study of the charged-Skyrmion or spin-texture excitations which occur in quantum Hall ferromagnets near odd Landau-level filling factors. Particle-hole symmetry is used to relate the spin-quantum numbers of charged particle and hole excitations and neutral particle-hole pair excitations. Hartree-Fock theory is used to provide quantitative estimates of the energies of these excitations and their dependence on Zeeman coupling strength, Landau-level quantum numbers, and the thicknesses of the two-dimensional electron layers. For the case of \ensuremath{\nu} near three we suggest the possibility of first-order phase transitions with increasing Zeeman coupling strength from a many-Skyrmion state to one with many maximally spin-polarized quasiparticles.