skyrmion

English

Etymology

Blend of Skyrme +‎ fermion, after British physicist Tony Skyrme (1922–1987), who proposed the mathematical structure as a model of the nucleon in 1961.

Noun

skyrmion (plural skyrmions)

1. (physics, solid state physics, string theory) Any of a particular class of topological soliton that can be used to model certain properties of a nucleon.
   • 1985, William A. Bardeen, Alan R. White, editors, Symposium on Anomalies, Geometry, Topology, World Scientific, page 502:

     No conclusive results are available yet; the hope is that the skyrmion would be stabilized at $R\approx \lambda _{c}$, where the gradient expansion breaks down and yet the skyrmion may still carry the quark quantum numbers.

   • 1998, Physics Letters: B., Volume 430, Part 2, North-Holland Publishing Company, page 169:

     The properties of nuclear matter at high densities have been investigated in many ways. Castillejo et al. studied Skyrmion matter by placing SU(2) hedgehog Skyrmions on a lattice and show that the deconfinement phase transition and the chiral symmetry restoration occur above a critical density [11].

2. (physics, solid state physics) A type of topological soliton that occurs in magnetic materials and magnetic thin films.

   Synonym: magnetic skyrmion

Derived terms

• antiskyrmion
• interskyrmion
• multiskyrmion
• nanoskyrmion
• skyrmionic
• skyrmionics
• skyrmionium

Translations

type of topological soliton

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 斯格明子 (sīgémíngzǐ)

• Finnish: skyrmioni
• Greek: σκυρμιόνιο (el) n (skyrmiónio)
• Polish: skyrmion (pl) m
• Portuguese: skyrmion m

Further reading

• Sigma model on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Topological quantum number on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Portuguese

Noun

skyrmion m (plural skyrmions)

1. (physics) skyrmion (hypothetical particle)