The stability of a single Belavin-Polyakov (BP) skyrmion in an isotropic Heisenberg ferromagnet is studied. Such a skyrmion is higher in energy than the uniform ferromagnetic state and is thus metastable. Starting from the lattice model in two spatial dimensions and using Maleyev-Dyson representation for spin operators, we examine the effects of magnon-magnon interaction for two quantities at $T=0$. First, we discuss self-energy corrections to the magnon energy. Second, we analyze the two-particle Green's function and possible bound states of two magnons. The simplicity of the model makes possible full analytic treatment of all relevant processes. We found that the magnons remain well-defined quasiparticles with a finite lifetime. The bound states of two magnons are suppressed near the skyrmion, although they are not excluded far away from it. A resonance for magnons of the dilational mode in the vicinity of the BP skyrmion is also found, which leads to a redistribution of the spectral weight. We conclude that the BP skyrmion as the classical topological object is not destroyed by quantum fluctuations.

• Received 28 June 2016
• Revised 26 October 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.94.214425