  The best-known way of stabilizing textures is by Skyrme-like terms, but
another possibility is to use gauge fields. The semilocal vortex may be viewed
as an example of this, in two spatial dimensions. In three dimensions, however,
the idea (in its simplest form) does not work -- the link between the gauge
field and the scalar field is not strong enough to prevent the texture from
collapsing. Modifying the |D Phi|^2 term in the Lagrangian (essentially by
changing the metric on the Phi-space) can strengthen this link, and lead to
stability. Furthermore, there is a limit in which the gauge field is entirely
determined in terms of the scalar field, and the system reduces to a pure
Skyrme-like one. This is described for gauge group U(1), in dimensions two and
three. The non-abelian version is discussed briefly, but as yet no examples of
texture stabilization are known in this case.
