Figure 2. Stability properties of a single skyrmion.

(a)Mean lifetimes of the Sk and FM states as a function of the magnetic field and the temperature. The red and black points are the results of MC calculations. The points of intersection are marked by green spheres. A cross-section of the data is shown in Fig. 3a with the same colour coding. The inset of a shows a sketch of the energy landscape. The energy minima E_Sk and E_FM of the Sk and FM states are separated by activation energies given by and , respectively. (b) The energies E_Sk and E_FM of the Sk and FM states, respectively, as a function of the magnetic field for the temperature k_BT=0.61 J alongside with the energy of the energy barrier E_B, which is given by the sum of the energy levels and activation energies. (c) The attempt frequencies ν₀.