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

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.