Major issues in theory of Bose–Einstein condensation

Abstract

Major issues arising in the theory of Bose–Einstein condensation are reviewed. These issues, although being principally important, are very often misunderstood, which results in wrong conclusions. The basic point is global gauge symmetry breaking that is a necessary and sufficient condition for Bose–Einstein condensation. Paying no attention to this basic point is a common fallacy leading to a number of confusions. For instance, the attempt of describing Bose condensation without gauge symmetry breaking produces the so-called “grand canonical catastrophe” that actually does not exist in the correct description of Bose condensation accompanied by gauge symmetry breaking. The other common flaw is forgetting to consider the stability of the studied systems. One sometimes accomplishes lengthy calculations and discusses the properties of a system that in reality cannot exist being unstable. In some cases, the seeming instability is caused by the negligence of the simple mathematical reason teaching us that one should not go beyond the approximation applicability. An example of such an artificial instability is related to the appearance of the so-called “thermodynamically anomalous fluctuations” whose arising is due to the use of a second-order approximation for calculating fourth-order terms, in this way distorting the O(2)-class model of a Bose-condensed system to the Gaussian-class model. These and other principal points, important for the correct treatment of Bose-condensed systems, are reviewed, including the resolution of the Hohenberg–Martin dilemma of gapless versus conserving theories for Bose-condensed systems and the problem of statistical ensemble equivalence.