Planar Skyrmions at high and low density

Abstract

The O(3) Skyrme system in two space dimensions admits topological soliton solutions. This paper studies the transition between the high-density crystalline phase of such solitons and the low-density phase where there are multi-Skyrmions localized in space. The details depend crucially on the choice of the potential function. Two such choices are investigated: in the first system, multi-Skyrmions at low density form a ring; while in the second, there is an explicit crystal solution, and the preferred low-density configurations are chunks of this crystal. The second system is a particularly good analogue of three-dimensional Skyrmions.