Spiral spin textures of bosonic Mott insulator with SU(3) spin-orbit   coupling
  We study the Mott phase of three-component bosons, with one particle per site, in an optical lattice by mapping it onto an SU(3) spin model. In the simplest case of full SU(3) symmetry, one obtains a ferromagnetic Heisenberg model. Introducing an SU(3) analog of spin-orbit coupling, additional spin-spin interactions are generated. We first consider the scenario of spin-dependent hopping phases, leading to Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya-type interactions. They result in the formation of spiral spin textures, which in one dimension can be understood by a local unitary transformation. Applying classical Monte Carlo simulations, we extend our study to two-dimensional systems, and systems with "true" spin-orbit coupling, involving spin-changing hoppings. 
Tobias Gra\ss, Ravindra W. Chhajlany, Christine A. Muschik, and Maciej   Lewenstein
cond-mat.quant-gas quant-ph