Solitons of a general gauged S2 model with a mass term

We study soliton solutions of the U(1) gauged S2 σ model with a generalised potential term. We show that the model has localised static solutions in the Q=1 topological sector. We prove some properties of the model and in particular: (i) we establish a topological bound for these solutions and (ii) we show that the model has finite energy solutions only in a finite region of the parameter space of the potential.