Bose–Einstein Condensation in Dilute Gases

by C. J. Pethick, H. Smith

• ISBN13: 9780521661942
• ISBN10: 0521661943
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-12-24
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

In 1925 Einstein predicted that at low temperatures particles in a gas could all reside in the same quantum state. This gaseous state, a Bose-Einstein condensate, was produced in the laboratory for the first time in 1995 and investigating such condensates has become one of the most active areas in contemporary physics. The study of Bose-Einstein condensates in dilute gases encompasses a number of different subfields of physics, including atomic, condensed matter, and nuclear physics. The authors of this graduate-level textbook explain this exciting new subject in terms of basic physical principles, without assuming detailed knowledge of any of these subfields. Chapters cover the statistical physics of trapped gases, atomic properties, cooling and trapping atoms, interatomic interactions, structure of trapped condensates, collective modes, rotating condensates, superfluidity, interference phenomena, and trapped Fermi gases. Problem sets are also included in each chapter.

Author Biography

Christopher Pethick received his D.Phil. degree in 1965 from the University of Oxford. After postdoctoral positions there and at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he joined the faculty at Illinois in 1970. He is currently professor at Nordita, the Nordic Institute for Theoretical physics in Copenhagen Henrik Smith obtained his mag. scient. degree in 1966 from the University of Copenhagen, and spent the next few years as a postdoctoral fellow at Cornell University and as a visiting scientist at the Institute for Theoretical Physics, Helsinki. In 1972 he joined the faculty of the University of Copenhagen where he is now a professor at the Orsted Laboratory

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. The non-interacting Bose gas

3. Atomic properties

4. Trapping and cooling of atoms

5. Interactions between atoms

6. Theory of the condensed state

7. Dynamics of the condensate

8. Microscopic theory of the Bose gas

9. Rotating condensates

10. Superfluidity

11. Trapped clouds at non-zero temperature

12. Mixtures and spinor condensates

13. Interference and correlations

14. Fermions

Appendix. Fundamental constants

Index.