S^3 Skyrmions and the Rational Map Ansatz

TL;DR

This paper explores multi-skyrmions on a 3-sphere using the rational map ansatz, providing new solutions with minimal energy and insights into their shell-like structures.

Contribution

It introduces an approximate analytic formula for skyrmion shape functions, explaining their shell-like geometry and identifying lowest energy configurations for baryon numbers 3 to 9.

Findings

Lowest energy solutions for B=3 to 9 identified

Analytic shape function formula derived

Shell-like structure of skyrmions explained

Abstract

This paper discusses multi-skyrmions on the 3-sphere with variable radius L using the rational map ansatz. For baryon number B = 3,...,9 this ansatz produces the lowest energy solutions known so far. By considering the geometry of the model we find an approximate analytic formula for the shape function. This provides an insight why skyrmions have a shell-like structure.