Solitonic fullerene structures in light atomic nuclei

TL;DR

This paper explores the Skyrme model's soliton solutions for nuclei, revealing that configurations with seven or more solitons form polyhedral structures similar to carbon fullerenes, bridging nuclear physics and molecular chemistry.

Contribution

It demonstrates that nuclear soliton configurations can form polyhedral shapes analogous to fullerenes, a novel connection between nuclear and molecular structures.

Findings

Soliton solutions for up to 22 nucleons were computed.

Configurations with 7+ solitons form polyhedral shapes.

Nuclear structures resemble carbon fullerenes.

Abstract

The Skyrme model is a classical field theory which has topological soliton solutions. These solitons are candidates for describing nuclei, with an identification between the numbers of solitons and nucleons. We have computed numerically, using two different minimization algorithms, minimum energy configurations for up to 22 solitons. We find, remarkably, that the solutions for seven or more solitons have nucleon density isosurfaces in the form of polyhedra made of hexagons and pentagons. Precisely these structures arise, though at the much larger molecular scale, in the chemistry of carbon shells, where they are known as fullerenes.