We discuss the stability and masses of topological solitons in QCD and strongly-interacting models of electroweak symmetry breaking with arbitrary combinations of two inequivalent Lagrangian terms of fourth order in the field spatial derivatives .
We find stable solitons for only a restricted range of the ratio of these combinations , in agreement with previous results , and we calculate the corresponding soliton masses .
In QCD , the experimental constraints on the fourth-order terms force the soliton to resemble the original Skyrmion solution .
However , this is not necessarily the case in strongly-interacting models of electroweak symmetry breaking , in which a non-Skyrmion-like soliton is also possible .
This possibility will be constrained by future LHC measurements and dark matter experiments .
Current upper bounds on the electroweak soliton mass range between 18 and 59 TeV , which would be reduced to 4.6 to 8.1 TeV with the likely sensitivity of LHC data to the fourth-order electroweak Lagrangian parameters .