Spontaneously sliding multipole spin density waves in cold atoms

Abstract

We report on the observation of spontaneously drifting coupled spin and quadrupolar density waves in the ground state of laser driven Rubidium atoms. These laser-cooled atomic ensembles exhibit spontaneous magnetism via light mediated interactions when submitted to optical feedback by a retro-reflecting mirror. Drift direction and chirality of the waves arise from spontaneous symmetry breaking. The observations demonstrate a novel transport process in out-of-equilibrium magnetic systems.