Skyrmions from a Born-Infeld action.

We consider geometrically motivated Higgs sector solitons based on a general covariant kinetic term proposed originally by Born and Infeld. We introduce this new term by generalizing the Born-Infeld action to a non-Abelian SU(2) gauge theory and by using the hidden gauge symmetry formalism. The static and stability properties of the solitons are then analyzed and compared with Skyrme-like models. {copyright} {ital 1996 The American Physical Society.}