1. Bose-Einstein Condensation
It’s pretty cool

2. 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 Bose’s theory, for an ideal gas of identical molecules
Lead to the prediction of a new form of matter

3. 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 1920’s, it wasn’t realized until 1995 by Eric Cornell and Carl Weiman of Colorado University
The formation BEC from left to right

4. 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

5. Strange Properties Superfluid Optically Dense
Magnetically Hypersensitive
Laser-like: Coherent matter waves
Solitons
Fermionic-Condensate
Bosenova

6. Bose-nova
Super-nova

7. That’s 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 BEC’s 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

8. That’s all…for 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 we’ve explored all the facets of this interesting condensate
While you won’t be buying any BEC-based products in the near future, you’ll probably be hearing more about it as research continues…

9. References http://www.wikipedia.org
Thanks to Phil for help with my pictures