Baryonic torii: Toroidal baryons in a generalized Skyrme model

Abstract

We study a Skyrme-type model with a potential term motivated by Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs), which we call the BEC Skyrme model. We consider two flavors of the model, the first is the Skyrme model and the second has a sixth-order derivative term instead of the Skyrme term; both with the added BEC-motivated potential. The model contains toroidally shaped Skyrmions and they are characterized by two integers P and Q, representing the winding numbers of two complex scalar fields along the toroidal and poloidal cycles of the torus, respectively. The baryon number is B=PQ. We find stable Skyrmion solutions for P=1,2,3,4,5 with Q=1, while for P=6 and Q=1 it is only metastable. We further find that configurations with higher Q>1 are all unstable and split into Q configurations with Q=1. Finally we discover a phase transition, possibly of first order, in the mass parameter of the potential under study.