Skyrmions in nematic liquid crystals -: art. no. 016602

Analytical solutions for static two-dimensional axisymmetric localized states minimizing the Frank free energy for nematic liquid crystals have been derived. These solitonic structures (skyrmions) include the well-known Belavin-Polyakov solutions as a special case for equal elastic constants. The structure and the equilibrium parameters of these nematic skyrmions crucially depend on values of the elastic constants. Stability limits of these structures and the possibility to observe them in nematic liquid crystals are discussed.