BOSE-EINSTEIN condensation is a macroscopic quantum phenomenon that was first predicted by Albert Einstein in the 1920s, at a time when quantum theory was still developing and was being applied to microscopic systems, such as individual particles and atoms. Einstein applied the new concept of Bose statistics to an ideal gas of identical atoms that were at thermal equilibrium and trapped in a box. He predicted that at sufficiently low temperatures the particles would accumulate in the lowest quantum state in the box, giving rise to a new state of matter with many unusual properties.
The crucial point of Einstein's model is the absence of interactions between the particles in the box. However, this makes his prediction difficult to test in practice. In most real systems the complicating effect of particle interactions causes the gas to solidify well before the temperature for Bose-Einstein condensation is reached. But techniques developed in the past four years have allowed physicists to form Bose-Einstein condensates for a wide range of elements.
In the August issue of Physics World magazine, Yvan Castin, Ralph Dum and Alice Sinatra from the Laboratoire Kastler Brossel de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, France, describe the latest advances in Bose-Einstein condensation.