States of Carbon-12 in the Skyrme Model

Abstract

The Skyrme model has two Skyrmion solutions of baryon number $12$, with $D_{3h}$ and $D_{4h}$ symmetries. The first has an equilateral triangular shape and the second an extended linear shape, analogous to the triangle and linear chain structures of three alpha particles. We recalculate the moments of inertia of these Skyrmions, and deduce the energies and spins of their quantized rotational excitations. There is a good match with the ground-state band of Carbon-12, and with the recently established rotational band of the Hoyle state. The ratio of the root mean square matter radii also matches the experimental value.

7 pages, 4 figures, revised version with new section on effect of changing pion mass parameter. This version accepted 07 Nov 2014 for publication in Physical Review Letters

References in corpus (5)

• Structure and rotations of the Hoyle state
• Evidence for Triangular D_3h Symmetry in 12C
• Skyrmions and the alpha-particle model of nuclei
• Light Nuclei of Even Mass Number in the Skyrme Model
• Chains of Skyrmions

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