Classically Spinning and Isospinning Non-Linear sigma-Model Solitons

Abstract

We investigate classically (iso)spinning topological soliton solutions in (2+1)- and (3+1)-dimensional models; more explicitly isospinning lump solutions in (2+1) dimensions, Skyrme solitons in (2+1) and (3+1) dimensions and Hopf soliton solutions in (3 +1) dimensions. For example, such soliton types can be used to describe quasiparticle excitations in ferromagnetic quantum Hall systems, can model spin and isospin states of nuclei and may be candidates to model glueball configurations in QCD.Unlike previous work, we do not impose any spatial symmetries on the isospinning soliton configurations and we explicitly allow the isospinning solitons to deform and break the symmetries of the static configurations. It turns out that soliton deformations clearly cannot be ignored. Depending on the topological model under investigation they can give rise to new types of instabilities, can result in new solution types which are unstable for vanishing isospin, can rearrange the spectrum of minimal energy solutions and can allow for transitions between different minimal-energy solutions in a given topological sector.Evidently, our numerical results on classically isospinning, arbitrarily deforming solitons are relevant for the quantization of classical soliton solutions.

Date of Award	1 Aug 2014
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Richard Battye (Supervisor)