Quantum fluctuation-induced uniaxial and biaxial spin nematics

Abstract

It is shown that zero point quantum fluctuations (ZPQFs) completely lift the accidental continuous degeneracy that is found in mean field analysis of quantum spin nematic phases of hyperfine spin 2 cold atoms. The result is two distinct ground states which have higher symmetries: a uniaxial spin nematic and a biaxial spin nematic with dihedral symmetry ${Dih}_4$. There is a novel first order quantum phase transition between the two phases as atomic scattering lengths are varied. We find that the ground state of $^{87}Rb$ atoms should be a uniaxial spin nematic. We note that the energy barrier between the phases could be observable in dynamical experiments.