1998/12/01 by E. Del Giudice, Del Giudice, E., G. Preparata +1
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) #cond-mat.stat-mech
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.cond-mat/9812018
6 pages
arxiv created 1998/12/01 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30
The remarkable recent experiments on ensembles of magnetically trapped ultracold alkali atoms have demonstrated the transition to a highly ordered phase, that has been attributed to the process of quantum-mechanical condensation, predicted long ago (1924) by Bose and Einstein. After having presented our argument against the above attribution, we show that the known phenomenology, including a discrepancy of about one order of magnitude with the predictions of Bose- Einstein condensation, is in good agreement with the electromagnetic coherence induced on the alkali atoms by the long range electrodynamic interactions. We also predict that for temperatures lower than a well defined TBEC, the state predicted by Bose and Einstein coexists with the new coherent electrodynamic state.