Nuclear Spectra from Skyrmions

For some time now, the Skyrme model has been studied as an effective nonlinear field theory in nuclear physics. Its classical, stable soliton solutions, called Skyrmions, have a conserved topological charge which is identified with baryon number. A quantized Skyrmion models a nucleus. Skyrmions with baryon number a multiple of four are structurally similar to the cluster structures well-known in the a-particle model. The most convenient quantization scheme treats a Skyrmion as a rigid body in space and isospin space, and quantizes just the collective rotational motion. Some selected vibrational modes of Skyrmions may be included too. This approach has been applied previously to Skyrmions up to baryon number about 6, by Braaten and Carson, Kopeliovich, Walhout, and others. Recently, Battye, Manton, Sutcliffe and Wood have calculated the moment of inertia tensors in space and isospace for Skyrmions up to baryon number 12. The allowed spin and isospin states have been found, and the energy spectra calculated. These spectra agree quite well with experimental spectra of several light nuclei, including 6Li, 8Be, 12C, and their various isotopes. However, for this to work, the length scale needs to be set rather larger than the traditional value determined by Adkins and Nappi using the nucleon and delta resonance masses. The most interesting theoretical feature of these calculations is that isospin and spin excitations are treated in a uniform way. There are quite subtle constraints on the possible spin and isospin values, because of the classical symmetries of each Skyrmion. Manton and his students, and Battye and Sutcliffe, have published a number of papers on classical and quantized Skyrmions in journals and on the arXiv. They are also jointly contributing an invited chapter on Skyrmions and Nuclei to the book The Multifaceted Skyrmion, currently being edited by G. Brown and M. Rho.(author)