Exploring the generalized loosely bound Skyrme model

Abstract

The Skyrme model is extended with a sextic derivative term - called the BPS-Skyrme term - and a repulsive potential term - called the loosely bound potential. A large part of the model's parameter space is studied for the 4-Skyrmion which corresponds to the Helium-4 nucleus and emphasis is put on preserving as much of the platonic symmetries as possible whilst reducing the binding energies. We reach classical binding energies for Helium-4 as low as 0.2%, while retaining the cubic symmetry of the 4-Skyrmion, and after taking into account the quantum mass correction to the nucleon due to spin/isospin quantization, we get total binding energies as low as 3.6% - still with the cubic symmetry intact.