  Recently, within the space of generalized Skyrme models, a BPS submodel was
identified which reproduces some bulk properties of nuclear matter already on a
classical level and, as such, constitutes a promising field theory candidate
for the detailed and reliable description of nuclei and hadrons. Here we extend
and further develop these investigations by applying the model to the
calculation of nuclear binding energies. Concretely, we calculate these binding
energies by including the classical soliton energies, the excitation energies
from the collective coordinate quantization of spin and isospin, the
electrostatic Coulomb energies and a small explicit isospin symmetry breaking,
which accounts for the mass difference between proton and neutron. The
integrability properties of the BPS Skyrme model allow, in fact, for an
analytical calculation of all contributions, which may then be compared with
the semi-empirical mass formula. We find that for heavier nuclei, where the
model is expected to be more accurate on theoretical grounds, the resulting
binding energies are already in excellent agreement with their physical values.
This result provides further strong evidence for the viability of the BPS
Skyrme model as a distinguished starting point and lowest order approximation
for the detailed quantitative investigation of nuclear and hadron physics.
