Skip to main content
Kent Academic Repository

Fermions coupled to solitons on low-dimensional spheres

McKenna, Jack (2023) Fermions coupled to solitons on low-dimensional spheres. Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) thesis, University of Kent,. (doi:10.22024/UniKent/01.02.102908) (KAR id:102908)

Abstract

We examine models of Dirac fermions coupled to topological solitons on the circle S1 and the sphere S2. The fermion is coupled to a pseudoscalar kink in the (1+1)-dimensional model, and to an isovector modelling a baby Skyrmion in the (2+1)-dimensional model. In each case, we solve the spectrum of the fermionic Hamiltonian exactly when the soliton field is kept fixed as a background field, and the fermion dynamics do not cause any back-reaction on the soliton field. In the (1+1)-dimensional model, we then bring the kink field out of the background, fully coupling it to the fermion field. After a change of coordinates to a set of bosonic coordinates constructed out of bispinors, we demonstrate that solutions to the bosonic dynamical system can be understood analytically via the framework of elliptic functions. We show that for a particular class of solutions with no axial charge, we can recover the underlying fermion field from the bispinor solution. In the (2+1)-dimensional model we specialise to the case of the background soliton of topological degree 1 and exploit an SU(2) symmetry to describe the fermion spectrum.

Item Type: Thesis (Doctor of Philosophy (PhD))
Thesis advisor: Krusch, Steffen
DOI/Identification number: 10.22024/UniKent/01.02.102908
Additional information: For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission.
Uncontrolled keywords: mathematical-physics topological-solitons Skyrmions fermions kinks
Subjects: Q Science > QA Mathematics (inc Computing science)
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences > School of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science
Funders: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (https://ror.org/0439y7842)
SWORD Depositor: System Moodle
Depositing User: System Moodle
Date Deposited: 22 Sep 2023 14:10 UTC
Last Modified: 27 Feb 2024 10:42 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/102908 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

McKenna, Jack.

Creator's ORCID:
CReDIT Contributor Roles:
  • Depositors only (login required):

Total unique views for this document in KAR since July 2020. For more details click on the image.