Topological Aspects of Solitons in Ferromagnets

Two kinds of topological soliton （skyrmion and magnetic vortex ring） in ferromagnets are studied. They have the common topological origin, a tensor Hαβ = n→·（δαn→×βδn→）, which describes the non-trivial distribution of local orientation of magnetization n→ at large distances in space. The topological stability of skyrmion is protected by the winding number. Knot-like topological defect as magnetic vortex rings is also studied. On the assumption that magnetic vortex rings are geometric lines, we present their δ-function distribution in ferromagnetic materials. Furthermore, it is briefly shown that Hopf invariant is a proper topological invariant to describe the topology of magnetic vortex rings.