SOLVING OPEN QUESTIONS IN THE BOSEEINSTEIN CONDENSATION OF AN IDEAL GAS VIA A HYBRID MIXTURE OF LASER AND STATISTICAL PHYSICS

2007 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Fluctuations in the Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) remain a rich field of study even in the ideal gas limit. We here present the laser master equation approach to the problem in the spirit of Eugene P. Wigner who said: "With classical thermodynamics, one can calculate almost everything crudely; with kinetic theory, one can calculate fewer things, but more accurately; and with statistical mechanics, one can calculate almost nothing exactly." The combination of kinetic theory plus statistical mechanics proves to be a powerful combination for the calculation of essentially exact BEC equilibrium results.

SOLVING OPEN QUESTIONS IN THE BOSEEINSTEIN CONDENSATION OF AN IDEAL GAS VIA A HYBRID MIXTURE OF LASER AND STATISTICAL PHYSICS Chapter