Effective-action studies of quantum Hall spin textures

We report on analytic and numerical studies of spin textures in quantum Hal l systems using a long wavelength effective action for the magnetic degrees of freedom derived previously. The majority of our results concern Skyrmio ns or solitons of this action. We have constructed approximate analytic sol utions for Skyrmions of arbitrary topological and electric charge and deriv ed expressions for their energies, charge, and spin radii. We describe a co mbined shooting/relaxational technique for numerical determination of the S kyrmion profiles and present results that compare favorably with the analyt ic treatment as well as with Hartree-Fock studies of these objects. In addi tion, we describe a treatment of textures at the edges of quantum Hall syst ems within this approach and provide details not reported previously. [S016 3-1829(99)03615-2].