Symmetric Skyrmions

TLDR

Assuming the Skyrme model accurately represents the low‑energy limit of QCD, these configurations correspond to the classical nuclear ground states of the light elements. The study presents candidates for the global minimum energy solitons of charge one to nine in the Skyrme model and establishes a basis for future investigation of their low‑energy vibrational modes to test the model against experiment. The authors use sophisticated numerical algorithms to generate soliton candidates and compute their energies and sizes with at least a few percent accuracy. The identified solitons exhibit high symmetry, such as icosahedral symmetry for charge seven, and their shapes follow a geometric energy minimization rule.

Abstract

We present candidates for the global minimum energy solitons of charge one to nine in the Skyrme model, generated using sophisticated numerical algorithms. Assuming the Skyrme model accurately represents the low energy limit of QCD, these configurations correspond to the classical nuclear ground states of the light elements. The solitons found are particularly symmetric, for example, the charge seven skyrmion has icosahedral symmetry, and the shapes are shown to fit a remarkable sequence defined by a geometric energy minimization (GEM) rule. We also calculate the energies and sizes to within at least a few percent accuracy. These calculations provide the basis for a future investigation of the low energy vibrational modes of skyrmions and hence the possibility of testing the Skyrme model against experiment.