Scattering of Skyrmions

TL;DR

This paper investigates the scattering behavior of two B=1 Skyrmions, revealing different regimes, a novel 'rotation without rotating' phenomenon, and effects of spin, providing new insights into Skyrmion interactions.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of Skyrmion scattering regimes, visualisation techniques, and the impact of spin, advancing understanding of Skyrmion dynamics.

Findings

Large separation scattering approximated as dipoles

Identification of short-range repulsion at small separations

Observation of 'rotation without rotating' effect

Abstract

In this paper, we present a detailed study of Skyrmion-Skyrmion scattering for two $B=1$ Skyrmions in the attractive channel where we observe two different scattering regimes. For large separation, the scattering can be approximated as interacting dipoles. We give a qualitative estimate when this approximation breaks down. For small separations we observe an additional short-range repulsion which is qualitatively similar to monopole scattering. We also observe the interesting effect of "rotation without rotating" whereby two Skyrmions, whose orientations remain constant while well-separated, change their orientation after scattering. We can explain this effect by following preimages through the scattering process, thereby measuring which part of an in-coming Skyrmion forms part of an out-going Skyrmion. This leads to a new way of visualising Skyrmions. Furthermore, we consider spinning Skyrmions and find interesting trajectories.