Bounding gauged Skyrmion masses

Abstract

Normally, standard (ungauged) skyrmion masses are proportional to the coupling of the Skyrme term needed for stability, and so can grow to infinite magnitude with increasing coupling. In striking contrast, when skyrmions are gauged, their masses are bounded above for any Skyrme coupling, and, instead, are of the order of monopole masses, O(v/g), so that the coupling of the Skyrme term is not very important. This boundedness phenomenon and its implications are investigated.