On the role of vector mesons in topological soliton stability

Isospin one vector mesons (in particular the $\rho$) are usually described as massive Yang-Mills particles in the chiral Lagrangian. We investigate some aspects of an alternative approach in the soliton sector. It is found that the soliton is stable in very much the same way as with the $\omega$-meson and that spontaneous parity violating classical solutions do not exist. The formulation in terms of antisymmetric tensors is shown to be canonically related to a vector field description provided the Skyrme term is added to the latter.