Multiple-$q$ dipole-quadrupole instability in spin-1 triangular-lattice systems

Abstract: We investigate a mechanism of multiple-$q$ states consisting of magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole degrees of freedom in spin-1 triangular-lattice systems. By systematically analyzing a minimal effective multipole model with bilinear multipole-multipole interactions in momentum space on a triangular lattice, we find minimum conditions of multipole interactions leading to the multiple-$q$ instability at zero temperature even without single-ion magnetic anisotropy and higher-order interactions. We present six types of triple-$q$ states with different magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole configurations depending on the model parameters. Our results indicate that the interplay between dipole and quadrupole degrees of freedom provides another source of inducing rich multiple-$q$ states.