Gauging the SU(2) Skyrme model - art. no. 085018

In this paper the SU(2) Skyrme model will be reformulated as a gauge theory and the hidden symmetry will be investigated and explored in the energy sp ectrum computation. To this end we propose a constraint conversion scheme, based on the symplectic framework with the introduction of Wess-Zumino term s in an unambiguous way. It is a positive feature not present in the Batali n-Fradkin-Fradkina-Tyutin constraint conversion. Dirac's procedure for the first-class constraints is employed to quantize this gauge-invariant nonlin ear system and the energy spectrum is computed. The result shows the power of the symplectic gauge-invariant formalism when compared with other constr aint conversion procedures present in the literature.