  We propose a variational wave function to represent quantum skyrmions as
bosonic operators. The operator faithfully reproduces two fundamental features
of quantum skyrmions: their classical magnetic order and a "quantum cloud" of
local spin-flip excitations. Using exact numerical simulations of the ground
states of a 2D chiral magnetic model, we find two regions in the
single-skyrmion state diagram distinguished by their leading quantum
corrections. We use matrix product state simulations of the adiabatic braiding
of two skyrmions to verify that the operator representation of skyrmions is
valid at large inter-skyrmion distances. Our work demonstrates that skyrmions
can be approximately coarse-grained and represented by bosonic quasiparticles,
which paves the way toward a field theory of many-skyrmion quantum phases and,
unlike other approaches, incorporates the microscopic quantum fluctuations of
individual skyrmions.
