Domain wall Skyrmions

Skyrmions of different dimensions are related by domain walls. We obtain explicit full numerical solutions of various Skyrmion configurations trapped inside a domain wall. We find for the quadratic mass-term that multi-Skyrmions are ring-shaped, and conjecture for the linear mass-term, that the lowest-energy state of multi-Skyrmions will consist of charge-2 rings accommodated in a lattice.Comment: LaTeX: 18 pages, 14 figures; V2: typos correcte

Higher-order Skyrme hair of black holes

Higher-order derivative terms are considered as replacement for the Skyrme term in an Einstein-Skyrme-like model in order to pinpoint which properties are necessary for a black hole to possess stable static scalar hair. We find two new models able to support stable black hole hair in the limit of the Skyrme term being turned off. They contain 8 and 12 derivatives, respectively, and are roughly the Skyrme-term squared and the so-called BPS-Skyrme-term squared. In the twelfth-order model we find that the lower branches, which are normally unstable, become stable in the limit where the Skyrme term is turned off. We check this claim with a linear stability analysis. Finally, we find for a certain range of the gravitational coupling and horizon radius, that the twelfth-order model contains 4 solutions as opposed to 2. More surprisingly, the lowest part of the would-be unstable branch turns out to be the stable one of the 4 solutions.Comment: LaTeX: 51 pages, 21 figures; V2: references added and typos correcte

Knotted domain strings

We construct meta-stable knotted domain strings on the surface of a soliton of the shape of a torus in 3+1 dimensions. We consider the simplest case of Z2 Wess-Zumino-type domain walls for which we can cover the torus with a domain string accompanied with an anti-domain string. In this theory, all (p,q)-torus knots can be realized as a linked pair of a(n) (un)knotted domain string and an anti-domain string.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures; V2: extended version with more details about the host model, the numerics and the stability of the solution

A higher-order Skyrme model

We propose a higher-order Skyrme model with derivative terms of eighth, tenth and twelfth order. Our construction yields simple and easy-to-interpret higher-order Lagrangians. We first show that a Skyrmion with higher-order terms proposed by Marleau has an instability in the form of a baby-Skyrmion string, while the static energies of our construction are positive definite, implying stability against time-independent perturbations. However, we also find that the Hamiltonians of our construction possess two kinds of dynamical instabilities, which may indicate the instability with respect to time-dependent perturbations. Different from the well-known Ostrogradsky instability, the instabilities that we find are intrinsically of nonlinear nature and also due to the fact that even powers of the inverse metric gives a ghost-like higher-order kinetic-like term. The vacuum state is, however, stable. Finally, we show that at sufficiently low energies, our Hamiltonians in the simplest cases, are stable against time-dependent perturbations.Comment: LaTeX: 42 pages, 3 figures; V2: simplifications implemented in Secs. 5 and 6, and references adde