TY - BOOK AU - Manton, Nicholas AU - Sutcliffe, Paul TI - Topological soliton T2 - Cambridge monographs on mathematical physics SN - 9780521040969 AV - QA611 PY - 2007///] CY - Cambridge, U.K. PB - Cambridge University Press N1 - Preface 1. Introduction 2. Lagrangians and fields 3. Topology in field theory 4. Solitons - general theory 5. Kinks 6. Lumps and rational maps 7. Vortices 8. Monopoles 9. Skyrmions 10. Instantons 11. Saddle points - sphalerons References Index N2 - Topological solitons occur in many nonlinear classical field theories. They are stable, particle-like objects, with finite mass and a smooth structure. Examples are monopoles and Skyrmions, Ginzburg-Landau vortices and sigma-model lumps, and Yang-Mills instantons. This book is a comprehensive survey of static topological solitons and their dynamical interactions. Particular emphasis is placed on the solitons which satisfy first-order Bogomolny equations. For these, the soliton dynamics can be investigated by finding the geodesics on the moduli space of static multi-soliton solutions. Remarkable scattering processes can be understood this way. The book starts with an introduction to classical field theory, and a survey of several mathematical techniques useful for understanding many types of topological soliton. Subsequent chapters explore key examples of solitons in one, two, three and four dimensions. The final chapter discusses the unstable sphaleron solutions which exist in several field theories.---summary provided by publisher ER -