It has been shown that Mayer's theory of imperfect gases can be handled approximately as a problem in association in which the actual gas is replaced by a mixture of ideal gases consisting of clusters of all sizes and between which dissociative equilibrium exists. Kahn and Uhlenbeck have shown how Mayer's theory can be generalized to apply to quantum degenerate gases. The purpose of the present paper is to examine the clustering approximation to such a theory of the quantum degenerate Bose-Einstein gas. The symmetrized wave functions for the clustering assembly are set up and the partition function evaluated for all ways of clustering. Equations of state are deduced that include condensation into the liquid phase as a clustering avalanche at the saturation pressure. It is found that clustering has the effect of lowering the lambda-temperature due to statistical degeneracy right down to the saturated vapor line, so that the lambda-transition is entirely inhibited from the gas phase.
It has been shown that Mayer's theory of imperfect gases can be handled approximately as a problem in association in which the actual gas is replaced by a mixture of ideal gases consisting of clusters of all sizes and between which dissociative equilibrium exists. Kahn and Uhlenbeck have shown how Mayer's theory can be generalized to apply to quantum degenerate gases. The purpose of the present paper is to examine the clustering approximation to such a theory of the quantum degenerate Bose-Einstein gas. The symmetrized wave functions for the clustering assembly are set up and the partition function evaluated for all ways of clustering. Equations of state are deduced that include condensation into the liquid phase as a clustering avalanche at the saturation pressure. It is found that clustering has the effect of lowering the lambda-temperature due to statistical degeneracy right down to the saturated vapor line, so that the lambda-transition is entirely inhibited from the gas phase.
The condition which has to be fulfilled in order that the Bose-Einstein condensation be accompanied by a discontinuity of the heat capacity at the condensation temperature is discussed. The nature of the transition depends on the distribution of the energy levels of the individual particles forming the gas. The condensation is studied for several types of individual energy spectra. It is shown that all those Bose-Einstein (B.E.) assemblies which admit a non-ambiguous definition of the statistical distribution function present, beside interesting analogies, a qualitatively different behavior from that observed in liquid helium. It appears that as long as the transition in momentum space of non-ideal B.E. systems is not understood, the possibility of connection between B.E. condensation and the transition observed in liquid helium remains an open problem.
The method developed in the previous paper for the treatment of the quantum-mechanical N-body hard-sphere problem is applied to a calculation of the grand partition function of an imperfect Bose gas with hard-sphere interactions. The grand partition function is calculated to second order in an expansion in powers of $\frac{a}{\ensuremath{\lambda}}$, where a is the hard-sphere diameter and $\ensuremath{\lambda}$ the thermal wavelength. The approximate equation of state for the gas phase is thereby obtained by calculating all the virial coefficients to order ${(\frac{a}{\ensuremath{\lambda}})}^{2}$.The first-order energy levels obtained in the previous paper embody some interesting physical properties. A fictitious system with exactly such energy levels is considered. The partition function for such a system can be calculated exactly and the exact equation of state obtained. It is shown that there is a phase transition, which more closely resembles an ordinary gas-liquid transition than the Bose-Einstein condensation.
In this paper, first of all, we proved if the ideal Bose gas with a finite volume and number of particles has a non-degenerate single-particle energy level n, the chemical potential μ can take the value μn = n and there is a phase transition temperature Tp,n, where n = 0,1,2 Taking 0 ≤ n Tp,n+1. When the temperature T > Tp,n or T ≤ Tp,n+1, μ # n and the most probable occupation number Nn = 0. In the temperature interval Tp,n ≥ T > Tp,n+1, μ = n and 0 ≤ Nn = N - NjsupNn, where Nj is the most probable occupation number in the degenerate level j. Thus, if the finite ideal Bose gas has some non-degenerate single-particle levels, there exists a characteristic temperature Tp = Tp,0. The chemical potential μ is quantized when T ≤ Tp, and this leads to the creation of a macroscopic quantum state (pure state) or Bose-Einstein condensation phase. Tp = Tp,0 is a first-order phase transition point, Tp,n#0 is a zero-order phase transition point. Next, we obtained a new expression of the most probable distribution of the finite ideal Bose gas. In this expression Nj is directly proportional to gj - 1, where gj and Nj are, respectively, the degeneracy and the most probable occupation number in the degenerate level j. This property agrees with what chemical potential can be quantized if there is a non-degenerate level for the finite ideal Bose gas. Finally, using this expression, we defined a micro-partition function M, obtained the statistical expressions of some thermodynamical quantities.
Bose-Einstein condensation is a unique phase transition in that it is not driven by interparticle interactions, but can theoretically occur in an ideal gas, purely as a consequence of quantum statistics. This chapter addresses the question, ‘ How is this ideal Bose gas condensation modified in the presence of interactions between the particles?’ This seemingly simple question turns out to be surprisingly difficult to answer. Here we outline the theoretical background to this question and discuss some recent measurements on ultracold atomic Bose gases that have sought to provide some answers. Introduction Unlike the vast majority of phase transitions, Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) is not driven by interparticle interactions but can theoretically occur in an ideal (noninteracting) gas, purely as a consequence of quantum statistics. However, in reality, interactions are needed for a Bose gas to remain close to thermal equilibrium. It is thus interesting to discuss if something close to ideal gas BEC can be observed in a real system and what happens in the vicinity of the BEC transition in the presence of interparticle interactions. These simple questions have not been easy to answer, either theoretically or experimentally. The theoretical foundations for studying the effect of interactions on Bose condensed systems were laid over half a century ago by Bogoliubov [1], Penrose and Onsager [2], and Belieav [3], among others. These works initially focused on zerotemperature properties and were extended to nonzero temperature in the pioneering papers of Lee, Huang, and Yang [4, 5, 6, 7]. At that time, the main experimental system was liquid He-4 in which the inter-particle interactions are strong, making connections with theory difficult. The realisation in 1995 of BEC in weakly interacting ultracold atomic gases [8, 9] thus opened up the possibility to experimentally revisit some of these long-discussed questions. This was further aided by, among other advances, the use of Feshbach resonances to tune the interaction strength in atomic gases [10, 11]. Thus, in the last twenty years the study of ultracold Bose gases has been very successful (see Chapter 3 for an insightful account of selected topics and surprising developments over this exciting period). However, the fact that, until recently, ultracold atoms were confined using harmonic potentials has hindered the study of the BEC transition itself.
After a brief historical introduction to Bose-Einstein condensation and Fermi degeneracy, we discuss theoretical results we have recentely obtained for trapped degenerate quantum gases by means of a thermal field theory approach. In particular, by using Gross-Pitaevskii and Bogoliubov-Popov equations, we consider thermodynamical properties of two Bosonic systems: a gas of Lithium atoms and a gas of Hydrogen atoms. Finally, we investigate finite-temperature density profiles of a dilute Fermi gas of Potassium atoms confined in a harmonic potential.