Skyrmions and their interactions using the Atiyah-Manton construction

The Atiyah-Manton (AM) construction based on instantons is used to construct skyrmions. For baryon number one, an analytic form for the skyrmion is obtained that compares well with the exact solution. For baryon number two, we study skyrmion interactions and distortion as a function of relative distance and orientation. From this we project out a nucleon-nucleon interaction. We find the principal features of the nuclear force but still no intermediate-range attraction. We compare the AM construction with the product ansatz.