Bose-Einstein Condensation

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Bose-Einstein Condensation

• Its pretty cool

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Where it all began
Bose
Einstein

• (1924) Indian S.N. Bose derives the Planck law
  for black-body by treating photons as a gas of
  identical particles
• Einstein later generalizes Boses theory, for an
  ideal gas of identical molecules
• Lead to the prediction of a new form of matter

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A bit of an explanation

• As the temperature is lowered the molecules of
  the gas collapse into the ground state
• In the lowest energy state the molecules blur
  together and form the Condensate
• So, Bose-Einstein condensate is just a collection
  of identical atoms smeared together in the lowest
  quantum-energy state
• Although the prediction had been around since the
  1920s, it wasnt realized until 1995 by Eric
  Cornell and Carl Weiman of Colorado University

The formation BEC from left to right
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How do we make it?

• Well, we cool some gas
• This is actually harder to do than it sounds the
  gas must be cooled down to a few microKelvin, or
  less
• It must also be kept Isolated from its
  surroundings
• In a typical Cooling apparatus there are four
  main sections
• Vacuum Pump
• Trap
• Laser Cooling System
• Evaporative Cooling System

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Strange Properties

• Superfluid
• Optically Dense
• Magnetically Hypersensitive
• Laser-like Coherent matter waves
• Solitons
• Fermionic-Condensate
• Bosenova

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• Bose-nova

Super-nova
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Thats Neat, but What is it good for?

• Bose-Einstein Condensate is still, for the most
  part in its infancy.
• Despite this, there have been few tentative
  ideas about applications of BEC
• Those few that have been formed stem from BECs
  extreme sensitivity to its environment
• The only immediate reward for study of BEC is to
  further our understanding of Quantum Physics
• There is hope for the future though BEC bears a
  striking resemblance to the early laser

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Thats allfor now

• BEC-a new form of matter which is achieved when
  enough atoms of a gas are trapped together at the
  ground-state energy level
• Great Experimental potential it could be quite
  some time before weve explored all the facets of
  this interesting condensate
• While you wont be buying any BEC-based products
  in the near future, youll probably be hearing
  more about it as research continues

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References

• http//www.wikipedia.org
• http//www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/index.pl
• http//www.mpq.mpg.de/qdynamics/projects/bec/bec.h
  tml
• http//www.physorg.com/news6303.html
• http//www.exn.ca/dailyplanet/story.asp?id2002011
  152
• http//www-lplgb.univ-paris13.fr/Gb/Equipes/Groupe
  COMETA/GroupeCOMETA.htm
• http//physicsweb.org/articles/world/10/3/3
• http//www.light-science.com/phys2.html
• http//physics.nist.gov/Pubs/Bec/TofCont.html
• Thanks to Phil for help with my pictures