Light Nuclei of Even Mass Number in the Skyrme Model

TL;DR

This paper applies semiclassical quantization to Skyrmions with mass numbers 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12, successfully reproducing many nuclear energy levels and predicting new states, thus linking Skyrme model solutions to observed nuclear spectra.

Contribution

It provides the first accurate calculations of spin and isospin inertia tensors for these Skyrmions and demonstrates their effectiveness in matching experimental nuclear spectra.

Findings

Good qualitative agreement with experimental energy levels

Successful reproduction of rotational bands of specific nuclei

Predictions of unobserved nuclear states and quantum numbers

Abstract

We consider the semiclassical rigid-body quantization of Skyrmion solutions of mass numbers B = 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12. We determine the allowed quantum states for each Skyrmion, and find that they often match the observed states of nuclei. The spin and isospin inertia tensors of these Skyrmions are accurately calculated for the first time, and are used to determine the excitation energies of the quantum states. We calculate the energy level splittings, using a suitably chosen parameter set for each mass number. We find good qualitative and encouraging quantitative agreement with experiment. In particular, the rotational bands of beryllium-8 and carbon-12, along with isospin 1 triplets and isospin 2 quintets, are especially well reproduced. We also predict the existence of states that have not yet been observed, and make predictions for the unknown quantum numbers of some observed states.