Emergent patterns in a spin-orbit coupled spin-2 Bose-Einstein condensate

TL;DR

This paper investigates the ground-state phases of a spin-orbit coupled spin-2 Bose-Einstein condensate, revealing emergent density patterns and phase transitions influenced by spin-dependent interactions and symmetry considerations.

Contribution

It introduces the study of density patterns in spin-2 BECs with spin-orbit coupling, highlighting the formation of square, triangular, and striped patterns in different phases.

Findings

Density patterns are widespread due to SO coupling and interactions.

Square and triangular patterns are observed in cyclic phases.

Patterns evolve into striped forms with increased SO asymmetry.

Abstract

The ground-state phases of a spin-orbit (SO) coupled atomic spin-2 Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) are studied. Interesting density patterns spontaneously formed are widespread due to the competition between SO coupling and spin-dependent interactions like in a SO coupled spin-1 condensate. Unlike the case of spin-1 condensates, which are characterized by either ferromagnetic or polar phase in the absence of SO, spin-2 condensates can take a cyclic phase, where we find the patterns formed due to SO are square or triangular in their spin component densities for axial symmetric SO interaction. Both patterns are found to continuously evolve into striped forms with increased asymmetry of the SO coupling.