Development of singularities of the Skyrme model

Abstract

The Skyrme model is a geometric field theory and a quasilinear modification of the Nonlinear Sigma Model (Wave Maps). In this paper, we study the development of singularities for the equivariant Skyrme Model, in the strong-field limit, where the restoration of scale invariance allows us to look for self-similar blow-up behavior. After introducing the Skyrme Model and reviewing what’s known about formation of singularities in equivariant Wave Maps, we prove the existence of smooth self-similar solutions to the [Formula: see text]-dimensional Skyrme Model in the strong-field limit, and use that to conclude that the solution to the corresponding Cauchy problem blows-up in finite time, starting from a particular class of everywhere smooth initial data.