Skyrmion dynamics in 2 + 1 dimensions

The classical dynamics of slowly moving CP¹ skyrmions in 2 + 1 dimensions is shown to be described by the geodesic motion on a Kähler manifold of “quark” and “anti-quark” constituents. Including a Hopf term in the lagrangian gives rise to interpolating quantum statistics and evaluation of the virial expansion amounts to the calculation of heat kernels for operators in a flux tube field background.