Bose-Einstein Condense

A Nobel prize in physics was awarded to 3 scientists(2 US n 1 German) in 2001 for achieving Bose-Einstein Condense, a theory since 70 years.

So what is Bose-Einstein Condense or a race for absolute zero, a program which I just saw in PBS Nova (inspired me to make a note in my blog)

In the quest to reach colder and colder temperatures, physicists in 1995 created a remarkable new form of matter—neither gas, nor liquid, nor solid—called a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). First envisioned by Albert Einstein and a young Indian physicist named Satyendra Bose in the 1920s (Proud to be an Indian moment more info at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyendra_Nath_Bose), BECs reveal properties of quantum mechanics—their atoms seem to merge together and lose their individual identity, behaving less like discrete particles and more like waves. If you're having trouble picturing this, not to worry; even physicists who work with BECs find them mind-boggling. In this interview, Luis Orozco of the University of Maryland, College Park offers some metaphors to help us begin to comprehend BECs and get a grasp of research in the strange world of ultracold atoms.


As things start to move slower and slower you're able to look at them for extended periods of time. It is as if I were to ask you, "Could you tell me something about the handles of a car that is passing on a highway at 50 or 60 miles an hour?" Definitely you won't be able to say anything. But if the car is moving rather slowly, then you would be able to tell me, "Oh yes, the handle is this kind, that color, has these properties." Or: "There is no handle." And it's precisely that ability to interrogate the car—I am looking at the car for a long, long time—so I can get information out of it.

In the same sense, if we have cold atoms and they're moving very, very slowly, then I should be able to learn a lot and get information out of those atoms. I extend the time that they are available.

At room temperature an atom is moving at roughly 500 meters per second.Slowing down to absolute zero, the atoms start to move about 20 centimeters per second [about 0.45 mph].

Applications: 1) At this slow velocity, we can study the atoms much closer that we ever thought of like studying weak force in atoms

2) Coherence of atoms

3) Quantum computers.