Gravitating sphalerons in the Skyrme model

We construct self-gravitating axially symmetric sphaleron solutions of the 3+1 dimensional Skyrme model coupled to Einstein gravity. The solutions are static and asymptotically flat, they are characterized by two integers n and m, where n is the winding numbers of the constituents and the second integer m defines type of the solution. These configuration correspond to the chains of charge n Skyrmions and charge -n anti-Skyrmions placed along the axis of symmetry in alternating order. We investigate the dependency of the masses of the gravitating sphalerons on the gravitational coupling. We find new chains of self-gravitating |n| = 1 Skyrmions-anti-Skyrmions (S-A) which emerge at some critical non-zero value of the gravitational coupling and do not have flat space limit. In contrast, the branches of self-gravitating |n| $\ge$ 2 S-A chains emerge from the corresponding flat space configurations. In both cases these branches merge at some maximal value of the effective gravitational coupling the branches of different type. The branch of gravitating S-A pair extends all the way back to the limit of vanishing coupling constant where solutions approach the corresponding generalised Bartnik-McKinnon solutions. The upper branch of gravitating S-A-S chain exist up to some critical value of the gravitational coupling at which the chain becomes broken. We further find that for small values of the coupling constant on the upper branches, the solutions correspond to composite systems, consisting of a scaled inner Einstein-Yang-Mills solution and outer Skyrmions which are separating from the inner configuration.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure

Fractional Hopfions in the Faddeev-Skyrme model with a symmetry breaking potential

We construct new solutions of the Faddeev-Skyrme model with a symmetry breaking potential admitting $S^1$ vacuum. It includes, as a limiting case, the usual $SO(3)$ symmetry breaking mass term, another limit corresponds to the potential $m^2 \phi_1^2$, which gives a mass to the corresponding component of the scalar field. However we find that the spacial distribution of the energy density of these solutions has more complicated structure, than in the case of the usual Hopfions, typically it represents two separate linked tubes with different thicknesses and positions. In order to classify these configurations we define a counterpart of the usual position curve, which represents a collection of loops $\mathcal{C}_1, \mathcal{C}_{-1}$ corresponding to the preimages of the points $\vec \phi = (\pm 1 \mp \mu, 0,0)$, respectively. Then the Hopf invariant can be defined as $Q= {\rm link} (\mathcal{C}_1,\mathcal{C}_{-1})$. In this model, in the sectors of degrees $Q=5,6,7$ we found solutions of new type, for which one or both of these tubes represent trefoil knots. Further, some of these solutions possess different types of curves $\mathcal{C}_1$ and $\mathcal{C}_{-1}$.Comment: 22 pages, 129 figure

Exact Self-Dual Skyrmions

We introduce a Skyrme type model with the target space being the 3-sphere S^3 and with an action possessing, as usual, quadratic and quartic terms in field derivatives. The novel character of the model is that the strength of the couplings of those two terms are allowed to depend upon the space-time coordinates. The model should therefore be interpreted as an effective theory, such that those couplings correspond in fact to low energy expectation values of fields belonging to a more fundamental theory at high energies. The theory possesses a self-dual sector that saturates the Bogomolny bound leading to an energy depending linearly on the topological charge. The self-duality equations are conformally invariant in three space dimensions leading to a toroidal ansatz and exact self-dual Skyrmion solutions. Those solutions are labelled by two integers and, despite their toroidal character, the energy density is spherically symmetric when those integers are equal and oblate or prolate otherwise.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, a reference adde

Electron Dynamics in Slowly Varying Antiferromagnetic Texture

Effective dynamics of conduction electrons in antiferromagnetic (AFM) materials with slowly varying spin texture is developed via non-Abelian gauge theory. Quite different from the ferromagnetic (FM) case, the spin of a conduction electron does not follow the background texture even in the adiabatic limit due to the accumulation of a SU(2) non-Abelian Berry phase. Correspondingly, it is found that the orbital dynamics becomes spin-dependent and is affected by two emergent gauge fields. While one of them is the non-Abelian generalization of what has been discovered in FM systems, the other leads to an anomalous velocity that has no FM counterpart. Two examples are provided to illustrate the distinctive spin dynamics of a conduction electron.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Sphaleron solutions of the Skyrme model from Yang-Mills holonomy

We discuss how an approximation to the axially symmetric sphalerons in the Skyrme model can be constructed from the holonomy of a non-BPS Yang-Mills calorons. These configurations, both in the Skyrme model and in the Euclidean Yang-Mills theory, are characterized by two integers n and m, where n are the winding numbers of the constituents and the second integer m defines type of the solution, it has zero topological charge for even m and for odd values of m the corresponding chain has total topological charge n. It is found numerically that the holonomy of the chains of interpolating calorons--anticalorons provides a reasonably good approximation to the corresponding Skyrmion--antiSkyrmion chains when the topological charge of the Skyrmion constitutents is two times more than the Chern-Pontryagin index of the caloron.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, Phys. Lett. B (in press