Spin nematic state as a candidate of the hidden order phase of URu$_2$Si$_2$

Abstract

Motivated by the recent discovery of broken four-fold symmetry in the hidden order phase of URu$_2$Si$_2$[R. Okazaki et al., Science {\bf 331}, 439 (2011)], we examine a scenario of a spin nematic state as a possible candidate of the hidden order phase. We demonstrate that the scenario naturally explains most of experimental observations, and furthermore, reproduces successfully the temperature dependence of the spin anisotropy detected by the above-mentioned experiment in a semi-quantitative way. This result provides strong evidence for the realization of the spin nematic order.