$SU(2)$ Yang-Mills solitons in $R^2$ gravity

Abstract We construct new family of spherically symmetric regular solutions of S U ( 2 ) Yang–Mills theory coupled to pure R 2 gravity. The particle-like field configurations possess non-integer non-Abelian magnetic charge. A discussion of the main properties of the solutions and their differences from the usual Bartnik–McKinnon solitons in the asymptotically flat case is presented. It is shown that there is continuous family of linearly stable non-trivial solutions in which the gauge field has no nodes.