  We present a novel approach to constructing gravitational instantons based on
the observation that the gravitational action of general relativity in its
teleparallel formulation can be expressed as a product of torsion and
excitation forms. We introduce a new class of solutions where these two forms
are equal, which we term the self-excited instantons, and advocate for their
use over the self-dual instantons of Eguchi and Hanson. These new self-excited
instantons exhibit striking similarities to BPST instantons in Yang-Mills
theory, as their action reduces to a topological Nieh-Yan term, which allows us
to identify the axial torsion as a topological current and to define a
topological charge.
