Bose Einstein Condensate (BEC) is a fifth state of matter that emerged in 1995, with particles exhibiting unique characteristics at 0 degrees Kelvin. Physicists Bose and Einstein theorized this state in 1924, but it wasn’t until 2001 that Wieman and Cornell were awarded the Nobel Prize for creating it using lasers and magnets. BEC distinguishes itself from other particles by its integer spin, and its superfluidity makes it an efficient source of energy with potential applications in nanotechnology and accelerating matter.
Bose Einstein’s condensate emerged in 1995 as an example of an incredibly cold fifth state of matter, a superfluid. Our universe is made up of gas, liquid, solid, and plasma, but physics predicts another form of matter that doesn’t exist in nature. The particles in Bose Einstein condensate have the coldest possible temperature, 0 degrees Kelvin or absolute zero. As a result, particles in this state exhibit unique, even bizarre characteristics.
In 1924, physicists Satyendra Nath Bose and Albert Einstein theorized that this other state of matter must be possible. Einstein expounded on Bose’s ideas about the behavior of light when it acts as waves and particles. He applied the strange statistics describing how light can merge into a single entity (now known as a laser) and wondered how it might impact particles with mass. But they were many years away from having sophisticated enough tools to test the theory of particles condensing into a new state.
When Carl Wieman and Eric Cornell cooled rubidium-87 to one-billionth of a degree of absolute zero, Bose Einstein Condensate (BEC) was born. They had to be careful and creative to cool these special particles, known as bosons, using a combination of lasers and magnets. For their efforts, they were awarded the Nobel Prize in 2001. We cannot yet cool particles such that their movement due to heat stops altogether (true absolute zero), but bring them to less than a millionth of a degree Kelvin is sufficient to demonstrate the properties of Bose Einstein condensate.
What distinguishes bosons from other particles is their integer spin relative to regular particles. The separated electrons in the composite bosons tend to occupy the exact same energy level at the same time, meaning that the atoms have coalesced to the exact same extent. We can look at this single unit and see a fuzzy dot, instead of several separate atoms. Other bosons, such as helium-4, can also be forced into a BEC.
When bosons collapse their identities into a single identity, they visually show us the wave-particle duality in a new way. BEC, with its similarity to lasers, could revolutionize some technologies. Their characteristic superfluidity causes them to flow without losing energy through friction, so they are an efficient source of energy. In the future, they could be used to etch at the nanoscale or accelerate matter to near the speed of light.
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