Quantum effects of nonlinear spin waves in ferromagnets

We investigate a squeezed thermal spin state of nonlinear spin waves in Heisenberg ferromagnets. In this state, the magnon system possesses a new kind of quasiparticle, the dressed nnagnon, whose mass is a monotonically decreasing function of temperature. The noise of one spin component in the squeezed thermal spin state can be below the noise level in the vacuum state. The magnon system undergoes a first-order phase transition from the normal state to the squeezed thermal spin state. The critical temperature is much lower than the Curie temperature. A possible detection scheme based on a polarized neutron-scattering technique is suggested. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.