  We find static solitons stabilized by quantum corrections in a
(1+1)-dimensional model with a scalar field chirally coupled to fermions. This
model does not support classical solitons. We compute the renormalized energy
functional including one-loop quantum corrections. We carry out a variational
search for a configuration that minimizes the energy functional. We find a
nontrivial configuration with fermion number whose energy is lower than the
same number of free fermions quantized about the translationally invariant
vacuum. In order to compute the quantum corrections for a given background
field we use a phase-shift parameterization of the Casimir energy. We identify
orders of the Born series for the phase shift with perturbative Feynman
diagrams in order to renormalize the Casimir energy using perturbatively
determined counterterms. Generalizing dimensional regularization, we
demonstrate that this procedure yields a finite and unambiguous energy
functional.
