half Skyrmion vs Meron

Question

Is there a difference between a half skyrmion and a meron? I'm asking this in regard to half skyrmion theories of High Tc Superconductors. It would be interresting to know if the proposed half skyrmions which emerge in the disturbed antiferromagnetic spin structure are actually merons.

Answer 1

Merons are in general another name for half-instantons, while half-Skyrmions are merons (and anti-merons) in the special case of nonlinear sigma models that support Skyrmions.