Topological phase transitions in the gauged BPS baby Skyrme model

Abstract

We demonstrate that the gauged BPS baby Skyrme model with a double vacuum potential allows for phase transitions from a non-solitonic to a solitonic phase, where the latter corresponds to a ferromagnetic liquid. Such a transition can be generated by increasing the external pressure P or by turning on an external magnetic field H. As a consequence, the topological phase where gauged BPS baby skyrmions exist, is a higher density phase. For smaller densities, obtained for smaller values of P and H, a phase without solitons is reached. We find the critical line in the P,H parameter space. Furthermore, in the soliton phase, we find the equation of state for the baby skyrmion matter V = V (P,H) at zero temperature, where V is the “volume”, i.e., area of the solitons