Properties of skyrmions of large baryon number

Using a mixture of analytic and numerical techniques, the authors calculate the properties of skyrmions pertaining to large baryon number N. They find a closed-form approximation for the soliton profile and generate approximate expressions for the skyrmion RMS radius and energy, from which energy densities for large N may be estimated. The results indicate that for N>13 these densities reach twice the value for a single nucleon and for very large N they rise as N¹2/. Thus the skyrmion supports energy densities of sufficient magnitude to provide the conditions for the creation of a quark-gluon plasma at nucleon numbers low enough to achieve this condition with conventional nuclear projectiles and targets.