2007/03/15 by Tobias Donner, Stephan Ritter, Thomas Bourdel +4 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Bose gas #Bose–Einstein condensate #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Condensation #Condensed matter physics #Correlation function (quantum field theory) #Critical exponent #Critical phenomena #Exponent #Matter wave #Measure (data warehouse) #Phase transition #Physics #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Quantum mechanics #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #Thermal fluctuations #Thermodynamics #cond-mat.stat-mech
paper · pdf · doi:10.1126/science.1138807
published as Science 315, 1556 (2007) · 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted version; published document available at http://www.quantumoptics.ethz.ch/publications.html
openalex publication_date 2007/03/15 · arxiv created 2007/04/11 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The phase transition of Bose-Einstein condensation was studied in the critical regime, where fluctuations extend far beyond the length scale of thermal de Broglie waves. We used matter-wave interference to measure the correlation length of these critical fluctuations as a function of temperature. Observations of the diverging behavior of the correlation length above the critical temperature enabled us to determine the critical exponent of the correlation length for a trapped, weakly interacting Bose gas to be nu = 0.67 +/- 0.13. This measurement has direct implications for the understanding of second-order phase transitions.