  The optical spectra in the family of multiferroic manganites RMnO3 is a great
puzzle. Current models can not explain the fact that two strong electromagnons
are present in the non-collinear spin cycloidal phase, with only one
electromagnon surviving the transition into the collinear spin sinusoidal
phase. We show that this is a signature of the presence of anomalous
magnetoelectric coupling that breaks rotational invariance in spin space and
generates oscillatory polarization in the ground state.
