Rotational-vibrational coupling in the BPS Skyrme model of baryons

We calculate the rotational-vibrational spectrum in the BPS Skyrme model for the hedgehog skyrmion with baryon number one. The resulting excitation energies for the nucleon and delta Roper resonances are slightly above their experimental values. Together with the fact that in the standard Skyrme model these excitation energies are significantly lower than the experimental ones, this provides strong evidence for the conjecture that the inclusion of the BPS Skyrme model is required for a successful quantitative description of physical properties of baryons and nuclei. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.