Scattering of skyrmions in an axially symmetric system

In the Skyrme model for strong interactions we study the exact time evolution of classical field configurations. We find that the skyrmion-skyrmion scattering (skyrmion-antiskyrmion scattering, in the channel in which they do not annihilate) is an essentially elastic process up to center-of-mass energies of roughly 150 MeV (75 MeV). Above this energy internal degrees of freedom of the skyrmion configuration remain excited after the collision and a nuclear potential can no longer be defined. The frequencies excited during the collision coincide with the frequencies obtained by analyzing the time evolution of an initially deformed single skyrmion configuration.