The existence of a Bose-Einstein condensation in an interacting many-boson system at T = 0°K is proved under certain conditions on the particle density and the interparticle potential. Starting with the tentative assumption that the condensation exists, we study the fluctuation in the occupation number of the condensate with due regard to its interactions (1) with particles outside the condensate as well as (2) with the fluctuation itself. If the condensate fluctuation has a normalizable ground state, then the assumed existence of the condensation is tenable. For the case of the pair-Hamiltonian model satisfying the conditions for condensation, the interactions of the second category are of no importance. In the limit of infinite volume, this Hamiltonian can be diagonalized in an irreducible representation of a Bose-field operatorφ(x), whereφ(x) has nonvanishing ground state expectation value, in accordance with the usual c-number replacement of creation and destruction operators for the condensate particles. The full Hamiltonian for a system of pairwise interacting bosons is studied only in a low-density limit. Bose-Einstein condensation exists when the over-all space integral of the interparticle potential is positive. In this case the interactions of the second category play an important role in ensuring a normalizable ground state for the condensate fluctuation. There is an indication that in the limit of infinite volume the Hamiltonian cannot be diagonalized in any irreducible representation of the field operatorφ. Yet the c-number replacement of the condensate operators is legitimate as far as states of particles outside the condensate are concerned. Some speculations are made as to what may happen for systems of moderate density.
This work is concerned with a microscopic model of a nonideal boson gas. The Hamiltonian is treated in a rigorous manner free of all approximations and, in particular, the Bogoliubov approximation of replacing the zero-momentum single-particle creation and destruction operators by a
c number is entirely avoided. Utilizing a method due to Wentzel, the Hamiltonian is replaced by one involving products of two second quantized operators which, in general, can be diagonalized. This replacement is shown to be rigorously valid in the infinite volume limit for all temperatures despite the avoidance of the Bogoliubov approximation. It is found that the assumption of a positive-definite quasiparticle excitation spectrum $\ensuremath{\epsilon}(\mathrm{k})$ becomes untenable for temperatures
T less than a critical value
Tc, if the interparticle potential is described by a certain kernel which possesses positive eigenvalues only, corresponding to a sufficiently repulsive interparticle force. Assuming that $\ensuremath{\epsilon}(\mathrm{k})=0$ only for k=0, it is found that for
T<Tc the system undergoes an Einstein condensation into the k=0 single-particle state, and the integral equations characterizing the system are precisely the same as would be obtained if the Bogoliubov approximation were made, proving within the framework of this model the strict validity of this approximation procedure. The well-known criterion for an Einstein condensation
v(0)>0, where
v(k) is the Fourier transform of the interparticle potential, is shown to be a weaker statement of our eigenvalue criterion. Further, in agreement with Girardeau and Arnowitt, it is found that an energy gap separates $\ensuremath{\epsilon}(0)$ and $\ensuremath{\epsilon}(\mathrm{k})$ for
k>0. An approximation method is developed for solving the integral equations which describe those systems which undergo an Einstein condensation, and it is shown that this method can be justified if $|T\ensuremath{-}{T}_{c}|\ensuremath{\lesssim}\frac{{T}_{c}}{10}$, and in cases of short-range repulsive interparticle forces and systems for which $\ensuremath{\rho}v(0)$ possesses a certain prescribed upper bound, $\ensuremath{\rho}$ being the number of particles per unit volume. The transition temperature is found to be lower than the corresponding quantity for the ideal boson gas of the same density. A detailed discussion of the thermal properties of the system in the vicinity of
Tc is also given. In an Appendix a general type of smeared Einstein condensation is assumed, and it is found that for systems in which this property occurs $\ensuremath{\epsilon}(\mathrm{k})$ is linear for small
k. This ansatz is shown to be tenable only if
v(0)<0. Finally, by assuming an appropriate pseudopotential representation of a hard repulsive core and by including a weak, longranged attractive force between particles, $\ensuremath{\epsilon}(\mathrm{k})$ shows a nonmonotonic behavior of the same qualitative type as observed in liquid
He4.
In treating system of bosons localized in a trapping potential, having a macroscopic number N0 of them condensing at the lowest single-particle level v0, Bogoliubov approximation is to replace the creation/annihilation operators [Formula: see text] of the state v0 by [Formula: see text]. We show that this approximation is justified if the inter-particle potential is repulsive in the sense specified. In fact, we show, by using [Formula: see text], that [Formula: see text] is effectively of the order [Formula: see text] under the condition stated.
We re-examine the way in which Bogoliubov's theory of a dilute Bose gas at
T=0 has been extended to describe the statistical mechanics of interacting bosons at finite temperature. We show explicitly that the field-theoretic calculation of the grand partition function in this formulation amounts to a canonical trace over the eigenfunctions of the Bogoliubov Hamiltonian at fixed total number of bosons
N, and that the additional trace over
N that is required in the grand-canonical formalism is never carried out. This implies that what usually passes as the grand-canonical treatment of the Bogoliubov Hamiltonian is not quite grand-canonical, and is in fact a canonical one. We also show that the discontinuity in the condensate density predicted by previous formulations of this theory as the temperature
T goes past the critical transition temperature
Tc is a direct consequence of an inappropriate generalization of the Bogoliubov prescription to finite temperatures, and that this discontinuity disappears when this prescription is either used as a zero temperature approximation or avoided altogether. Armed with the above findings, we reformulate the statistical mechanics of interacting bosons in the canonical ensemble and derive the thermodynamics of the system. We then show how the canonical treatment can be used to setup a truly grand-canonical description of the statistical mechanics of a weakly interacting Bose gas where the average number of bosons in the system varies with temperature, unlike existing formulations where the total number of bosons
N is taken to be a constant that does not depend on
T. Consequences on the physics of interacting bosons are briefly discussed.
Some collective behaviors of boson assemblies are described in terms of the classical density operator and the classical velocity operator. We introduce these two classical quantities by taking average of the quantized operators with respect to Heisenberg wave packets. Equations of these two quantities are determined and we obtain the transport equations. Thus the assembly is described as a fluid having the quantum mechanical pressure tensor. The collective behavior of the assembly in question is analysed applying the theory of sound waves. Such an approximate treatment enables us to regard the assembly in question as the assembly of oscillation quanta. When a particle is projected into the assembly with the velocity v0 which is larger than the sound speed of the medium, suffering the collective response of the remainder of the bosons, the particle is decelerated and emits sound quanta. These processes are analysed by a classical treatment. Further we consider the interaction of every particle in the assembly with the field of the collective oscillation representing behaviors of the remainder of the assembly. The self-energy of the particle and the Møller interaction between particles are obtained according to the interaction representation of Tomonaga and Schwinger as well as the canonical transformation of Bloch and Nordsieck.
How and why could an interacting system of many particles be described as if all particles were independent and identically distributed? This question is at least as old as statistical mechanics itself. Its quantum version has been rejuvenated by the birth of cold atoms physics. In particular, the experimental creation of Bose–Einstein condensates leads to the following variant: why and how can a large assembly of very cold interacting bosons (quantum particles deprived of the Pauli exclusion principle) all populate the same quantum state? In this text I review the various mathematical techniques allowing to prove that the lowest energy state of a bosonic system forms, in a reasonable macroscopic limit of large particle number, a Bose–Einstein condensate. This means that indeed in the relevant limit all particles approximately behave as if independent and identically distributed, according to a law determined by minimizing a non-linear Schrödinger energy functional. This is a particular instance of the justification of the mean-field approximation in statistical mechanics, starting from the basic many-body Schrödinger Hamiltonian.