Person:

Vishwanath, Ashvin

We show that quantum and thermal fluctuations in spin-2 Bose-Einstein condensates lift the accidental degeneracy of the mean-field phase diagram. Fluctuations select the uniaxial (square biaxial) nematic state for scattering lengths a4 > a2 (a4 < a2). Paradoxically, the order is stronger at higher temperatures. For spin-2 87Rb and 23Na, a continuous Ising-type transition is predicted on raising the magnetic field, from a fluctuation stabilized uniaxial state to a field stabilized square biaxial order state. This is a promising experimental system to realize the ‘‘order-by-disorder’’ phenomenon.