MAKING NUCLEI OUT OF THE SKYRME CRYSTAL

A new method for approximating Skyrme solutions is developed. It consi sts of cutting sections out of the Skyrme crystal and smoothly interpo lating between the boundary and spatial infinity. Several field config urations are constructed, and their energies calculated. The surface e nergy (per unit area) of an infinite flat plane of the crystal is also calculated, and the result used to derive a formula analogous to the semi-empirical mass formula of nuclear physics. This formula can be us ed to give some idea of what the Skyrme model predicts about volume an d surface energies of the nucleus over a broad range of baryon numbers .