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

Abstract: We construct new family of spherically symmetric regular solutions of $SU(2)$ 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.