  We use a simulated annealing algorithm to find the static field configuration
with the lowest energy in a given sector of topological charge for generalized
SU(2) Skyrme models. These numerical results suggest that the following
conjecture may hold: the symmetries of the soliton solutions of extended Skyrme
models are the same as for the Skyrme model. Indeed, this is verified for two
effective Lagrangians with terms of order six and order eight in derivatives of
the pion fields respectively for topological charges B=1 up to B=4. We also
evaluate the energy of these multi-skyrmions using the rational maps ansatz. A
comparison with the exact numerical results shows that the reliability of this
approximation for extended Skyrme models is almost as good as for the pure
Skyrme model. Some details regarding the implementation of the simulated
annealing algorithm in one and three spatial dimensions are provided.
