Spin waves in a Bose-Einstein-condensed atomic spin chain

The spin dynamics of atomic Bose-Einstein condensates confined in a one-dimensional optical lattice is studied. The condensates at each lattice site behave like spin magnets that can interact with each other through both the light-induced dipole-dipole interaction and the static magnetic dipole-dipole interaction. We show how these site-to-site dipolar interactions can distort the ground-state spin orientations and lead to the excitation of spin waves. The dispersion relation of the spin waves is studied and possible detection schemes are proposed.