Hopf term, fractional spin and soliton operators in the O(3) non-linear sigma model Original Research Article

We re-examine three issues, the Hopf term, fractional spin and the soliton operators, in the 2+1 dimensional O(3) non-linear sigma model based on the adjoint orbit parametrization (AOP) introduced earlier. It is shown that the Hopf term is well defined for configurations of any soliton charge Q if we adopt a time-independent boundary condition at spatial infinity. We then develop the Hamiltonian formulation of the model in the AOP and thereby argue that the well-known Q2 formula for fractional spin holds only for a restricted class of configurations. Operators that create states of given classical configurations of any soliton number in the (physical) Hilbert space are constructed. Our results clarify some of the points that are crucial for the above three topological issues and yet have remained obscure in the literature.