Periodic spin textures in a degenerate F = 1 87 Rb spinor Bose gas

We report on the spin textures produced by cooling unmagnetized 87Rb F = 1 spinor gases into the regime of quantum degeneracy. At low temperatures, magnetized textures form that break translational symmetry and display short-range periodic magnetic order characterized by oneor two-dimensional spatial modulations with wavelengths much smaller than the extent of the quasi-two-dimensional degenerate gas. Spin textures produced upon cooling spin mixtures with a nonzero initial magnetic quadrupole moment also show ferromagnetic order that, at low temperature, coexists with the spatially modulated structure.