Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

Bose-Einstein Condensation in Random Potentials

Maximilian Pechmann

Published Jan 1, 2019• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Bose–Einstein condensation can be understood as a macroscopic occupation of a single-particle state. But an alternative definition, which requires only a macroscopic occupation of an arbitrarily small energy band of single-particle states, is also known, referred to as generalized Bose–Einstein condensation, and considered to be thermodynamically more stable. Depending on the number of macroscopically occupied single-particle states in the condensate, three types are then distin-guished. If the number of macroscopically occupied single-particle states is finite but at least one, then the condensation is said to be of type-I. A type-II condensate occurs if infinitely many single-particle states are macroscopically occupied. If a generalized Bose–Einstein condensation without any macroscopically occupied single-particle states is present, then one speaks of a type-III con-densation. In noninteracting Bose gases, it is generally easier to prove the occurrence of generalized Bose–Einstein condensation than to determine its type. While a main step for the former task is to show that the critical density is finite, quite detailed knowledge of the energy gaps of the cor-responding single-particle Hamiltonian at the lower edge of the spectrum is needed for the latter one. In this dissertation, we study the occurrence of a Bose–Einstein condensate in Bose gases that are placed in metrically transitive random potentials. We mainly consider the Poisson random potential. The thermodynamic limit and Dirichlet boundary conditions are used throughout this work. We explore noninteracting Bose gases in arbitrary dimension at positive temperatures and a one-dimensional interacting Bose gas at zero temperature. We provide fairly general sufficient conditions for the random potential that imply the almost sure occurrence of generalized Bose–Einstein condensation in noninteracting Bose gases. These conditions are fulfilled by a Poisson random potential, depending on its single-impurity potential. They are also met by the one-dimensional Luttinger–Sy model, which is a central system in the research area of Bose gases in random potentials, and a generalization thereof. Moreover, we state sufficient energy gap conditions such that one can conclude a type-I condensation in Poisson random potentials. We consider different probabilistic notions here, such as convergence in the rth mean, r P N, in probability, and with probability almost one. In particular, we prove that in the Luttinger–Sy model with infinitely strong random potential a type-I condensation occurs in the rth mean, r P N, if the particle density is greater than the critical one. For the Luttinger–Sy model with a finitely strong random potential, we show the same statement, but with probability almost one. Finally, we discuss the Luttinger–Sy model with a repulsive contact interaction between the particles at zero temperature. We provide sufficient requirements such that a generalized Bose–Einstein condensate almost surely occurs. We also show that the type of the condensate is altered by the interparticle interaction. In particular, we demonstrate a transition from a type-I to a type-III condensate when the strength of the contact interaction is increased. Furthermore, we prove that the interparticle interaction reduces the local particle density.

DOI
10.18445/20190724-144457-1

Related papers

On the nature of Bose–Einstein condensation enhanced by localization

Thomas Jaeck, Joseph V. Pulé, Valentin Anatol'evich Zagrebnov

In a previous paper we established that for the perfect Bose gas and the mean-field Bose gas with an external random or weak potential, whenever there is generalized Bose–Einstein condensation in the eigenstates of the single particle Hamiltonian, there is also generalized condensation in the kinetic-energy states. In these cases Bose–Einstein condensation is produced or enhanced by the external potential. In the present paper we establish a criterion for the absence of condensation in single kinetic-energy states and prove that this criterion is satisfied for a class of random potentials and weak potentials. This means that the condensate is spread over an infinite number of states with low kinetic-energy without any of them being macroscopically occupied.

arXiv:1006.3924•Journal of Mathematical Physics•Oct 1, 2010•8 citations

On the nature of Bose-Einstein condensation enhanced by localization

Thomas Jaeck, Joseph V. Pulé, Valentin Anatol'evich Zagrebnov

In a previous paper we established that for the perfect Bose gas and the mean-field Bose gas with an external random or weak potential, whenever there is generalized Bose-Einstein condensation in the eigenstates of the single particle Hamiltonian, there is also generalized condensation in the kinetic energy states. In these cases Bose-Einstein condensation is produced or enhanced by the external potential. In the present paper we establish a criterion for the absence of condensation in single kinetic energy states and prove that this criterion is satisfied for a class of random potentials and weak potentials. This means that the condensate is spread over an infinite number of states with low kinetic energy without any of them being macroscopically occupied.

•Aug 26, 2015•11 citations

Normal and generalized Bose condensation in traps: One dimensional examples

András Sütö

We prove the following results. (i) One-dimensional Bose gases which interact via unscaled integrable pair interactions and are confined in an external potential increasing faster than quadratically undergo a complete generalized Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) at any temperature, in the sense that a macroscopic number of particles are distributed on a o(N) number of one-particle states. (ii) In a one dimensional harmonic trap the replacement of the oscillator frequency ω by ω ln N/N gives rise to a phase transition at a ≡ �ωβ = 1 in the noninteracting gas. For a < 1 the limit distribution of n0/N a is exponential and 〈n0〉/N a → 1. For a> 1 there is BEC with a condensate density 〈n0〉/N → 1 − a −1. For a ≥ 1, (lnN/N)(n0 − 〈n0〉) is asymptotically distributed following Gumbel’s law. For any a> 0 the free energy is −(π 2 /6βa)N / lnN + o(N/ln N), with no singularity at a = 1. (iii) In Model (ii) both above and below the critical temperature the gas undergoes a complete generalized BEC, thus providing a coexistence of ordinary and generalized condensates below the critical point. (iv) Adding an interaction 〈UN 〉 = o(N ln N) to Model (ii) we prove that a complete generalized BEC occurs for any β> 0.

•Jan 1, 2003•2 citations

Bose-Einstein Condensation in the Luttinger-Sy Model

Lenoble, Olivier, Valentin Anatol'evich Zagrebnov

We present a rigorous study of the Bose-Einstein condensation in the Luttinger-Sy model. We prove the existence of the condensation in this one-dimensional model of the perfect boson gas placed in the Poisson random potential of singular point impurities. To tackle the off-diagonal long-range order we calculate explicitly the corresponding space-averaged one-body reduced density matrix. We show that mathematical mechanism of the Bose-Einstein condensation in this random model is similar to condensation in a one-dimensional nonrandom hierarchical model of scaled intervals. For the Luttinger-Sy model we prove the Kac-Luttinger conjecture, i.e., that this model manifests a type I BEC localized in a single "largest" interval of logarithmic size.

arXiv:math-ph/0604068•Apr 27, 2006•15 citations

Equilibrium and Non-Equilibrium Properties of Dilute Bose Gases

Oldenburg, Jakob Felix

Quantum systems consisting of many particles are both interesting from the physics and the mathematics perspective. One aspect that makes them fascinating from the physics point of view is that they can exhibit quantum effects on macroscopic scales such as Bose-Einstein condensation. This phenomenon, first predicted 100 years ago by Bose [19] and Einstein [44], occurs when a dilute gas of bosons is cooled down to very low temperatures. Below a certain critical temperature a condensate forms, meaning that a macroscopic fraction of the particles is in the same one-particle state, and thus, quantum phenomena become relevant on length scales much larger than the individual atom. The occurrence of Bose-Einstein condensation is also related to superfluidity as suggested in [88]. Bose-Einstein condensation has been achieved experimentally independently by the groups of Cornell and Wieman [3] and Ketterle [40] earning them a Nobel prize in 2001. While Bose and Einstein analyzed theoretically the non-interacting gas, an effective theory describing weakly interacting Bose gases was proposed by Bogoliubov in 1947 with the goal of explaining the occurrence of superfluidity in liquid helium [18]. Using assumptions such as that condensation indeed occurs, his theory yields predictions for the low-energy states of the system. Seen from the mathematics perspective, describing the Bose gas is an interesting challenge due to the strong correlations between particles introduced by the interaction making this case much harder to study than the non-interacting one. In particular, a proof that Bose-Einstein condensation occurs in the thermodynamic limit for continuous systems is still out of reach. However, there has been a lot of work regarding the rigorous analysis of bosonic systems in various relevant regimes. This thesis contains three new contributions establishing rigorous results on bosonic systems in different, physically relevant settings. It is based on the articles [37, 27, 31]. The first result concerns the time-evolution of initially trapped Bose gases in the ultra-dilute Gross-Pitaevskii regime. Under some assumptions on the initial data satisfied in particular by a class of states that are expected to approximate the ground state in a trap, we derive a quasi-free approximation that is close to the true solution in $L^2$-norm. In particular, we show that this approximate wave function is described in terms of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a one-particle state following the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation together with pair excitations with respect to this condensate. As a corollary, we establish a central limit theorem for bounded one-particle observables. The second result is a simple proof of Bose-Einstein condensation for interacting, ultra-dilute gases. More specifically, we consider scalings interpolating between the Gross-Pitaevskii regime and the thermodynamic limit. While condensation had been shown to hold in these regimes before, the advantage of the method used here is its simplicity. Lastly, the third result establishes an upper bound on the ground state energy of a dilute Bose gas in the thermodynamic limit. It captures rigorously the third order correction to the energy per unit volume for sufficiently low densities as predicted in the physics literature first by Wu and subsequently others. $\textit{Full-text embargoed until: 2026-01-01}$

•Dec 9, 2025•0 citations

Existence and absence of Bose-Einstein condensation in the interacting random Kac-Luttinger model

C. Boccato, J. Kerner, M. Pechmann +1 more

In this paper, we study interacting bosons at zero temperature in a random and higher-dimensional continuum model introduced by Kac and Luttinger. For weak interactions we prove that there is condensation in the lowest eigenstate of the one-particle Hamiltonian (type-I BEC). For strong interactions, however, we show that condensation in a localized state cannot occur. We also prove generalized condensation, where a family of eigenstates of the one-particle Hamiltonian is macroscopically occupied as a whole. Combining these results yields a scenario where there is generalized condensation into a family of eigenstates of the one-particle Hamiltonian, but none of them is macroscopically occupied itself (type-III BEC). This proves a transition in the type of condensation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first rigorous result in this direction for a random continuum model in higher dimensions.

math-phCross-listedarXiv:2606.30277•Jun 30, 2026•0 citations
Bose–Einstein condensation can be understood as a macroscopic occupation of a single-particle state. But an alternative definition, which requires only a macroscopic occupation of an arbitrarily small energy band of single-particle states, is also known, referred to as generalized Bose–Einstein condensation, and considered to be thermodynamically more stable. Depending on the number of macroscopically occupied single-particle states in the condensate, three types are then distin-guished. If the number of macroscopically occupied single-particle states is finite but at least one, then the condensation is said to be of type-I. A type-II condensate occurs if infinitely many single-particle states are macroscopically occupied. If a generalized Bose–Einstein condensation without any macroscopically occupied single-particle states is present, then one speaks of a type-III con-densation. In noninteracting Bose gases, it is generally easier to prove the occurrence of generalized Bose–Einstein condensation than to determine its type. While a main step for the former task is to show that the critical density is finite, quite detailed knowledge of the energy gaps of the cor-responding single-particle Hamiltonian at the lower edge of the spectrum is needed for the latter one. In this dissertation, we study the occurrence of a Bose–Einstein condensate in Bose gases that are placed in metrically transitive random potentials. We mainly consider the Poisson random potential. The thermodynamic limit and Dirichlet boundary conditions are used throughout this work. We explore noninteracting Bose gases in arbitrary dimension at positive temperatures and a one-dimensional interacting Bose gas at zero temperature. We provide fairly general sufficient conditions for the random potential that imply the almost sure occurrence of generalized Bose–Einstein condensation in noninteracting Bose gases. These conditions are fulfilled by a Poisson random potential, depending on its single-impurity potential. They are also met by the one-dimensional Luttinger–Sy model, which is a central system in the research area of Bose gases in random potentials, and a generalization thereof. Moreover, we state sufficient energy gap conditions such that one can conclude a type-I condensation in Poisson random potentials. We consider different probabilistic notions here, such as convergence in the rth mean, r P N, in probability, and with probability almost one. In particular, we prove that in the Luttinger–Sy model with infinitely strong random potential a type-I condensation occurs in the rth mean, r P N, if the particle density is greater than the critical one. For the Luttinger–Sy model with a finitely strong random potential, we show the same statement, but with probability almost one. Finally, we discuss the Luttinger–Sy model with a repulsive contact interaction between the particles at zero temperature. We provide sufficient requirements such that a generalized Bose–Einstein condensate almost surely occurs. We also show that the type of the condensate is altered by the interparticle interaction. In particular, we demonstrate a transition from a type-I to a type-III condensate when the strength of the contact interaction is increased. Furthermore, we prove that the interparticle interaction reduces the local particle density.
In a previous paper we established that for the perfect Bose gas and the mean-field Bose gas with an external random or weak potential, whenever there is generalized Bose–Einstein condensation in the eigenstates of the single particle Hamiltonian, there is also generalized condensation in the kinetic-energy states. In these cases Bose–Einstein condensation is produced or enhanced by the external potential. In the present paper we establish a criterion for the absence of condensation in single kinetic-energy states and prove that this criterion is satisfied for a class of random potentials and weak potentials. This means that the condensate is spread over an infinite number of states with low kinetic-energy without any of them being macroscopically occupied.
In a previous paper we established that for the perfect Bose gas and the mean-field Bose gas with an external random or weak potential, whenever there is generalized Bose-Einstein condensation in the eigenstates of the single particle Hamiltonian, there is also generalized condensation in the kinetic energy states. In these cases Bose-Einstein condensation is produced or enhanced by the external potential. In the present paper we establish a criterion for the absence of condensation in single kinetic energy states and prove that this criterion is satisfied for a class of random potentials and weak potentials. This means that the condensate is spread over an infinite number of states with low kinetic energy without any of them being macroscopically occupied.
We prove the following results. (i) One-dimensional Bose gases which interact via unscaled integrable pair interactions and are confined in an external potential increasing faster than quadratically undergo a complete generalized Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) at any temperature, in the sense that a macroscopic number of particles are distributed on a o(N) number of one-particle states. (ii) In a one dimensional harmonic trap the replacement of the oscillator frequency ω by ω ln N/N gives rise to a phase transition at a ≡ �ωβ = 1 in the noninteracting gas. For a < 1 the limit distribution of n0/N a is exponential and 〈n0〉/N a → 1. For a> 1 there is BEC with a condensate density 〈n0〉/N → 1 − a −1. For a ≥ 1, (lnN/N)(n0 − 〈n0〉) is asymptotically distributed following Gumbel’s law. For any a> 0 the free energy is −(π 2 /6βa)N / lnN + o(N/ln N), with no singularity at a = 1. (iii) In Model (ii) both above and below the critical temperature the gas undergoes a complete generalized BEC, thus providing a coexistence of ordinary and generalized condensates below the critical point. (iv) Adding an interaction 〈UN 〉 = o(N ln N) to Model (ii) we prove that a complete generalized BEC occurs for any β> 0.
We present a rigorous study of the Bose-Einstein condensation in the Luttinger-Sy model. We prove the existence of the condensation in this one-dimensional model of the perfect boson gas placed in the Poisson random potential of singular point impurities. To tackle the off-diagonal long-range order we calculate explicitly the corresponding space-averaged one-body reduced density matrix. We show that mathematical mechanism of the Bose-Einstein condensation in this random model is similar to condensation in a one-dimensional nonrandom hierarchical model of scaled intervals. For the Luttinger-Sy model we prove the Kac-Luttinger conjecture, i.e., that this model manifests a type I BEC localized in a single "largest" interval of logarithmic size.
Quantum systems consisting of many particles are both interesting from the physics and the mathematics perspective. One aspect that makes them fascinating from the physics point of view is that they can exhibit quantum effects on macroscopic scales such as Bose-Einstein condensation. This phenomenon, first predicted 100 years ago by Bose [19] and Einstein [44], occurs when a dilute gas of bosons is cooled down to very low temperatures. Below a certain critical temperature a condensate forms, meaning that a macroscopic fraction of the particles is in the same one-particle state, and thus, quantum phenomena become relevant on length scales much larger than the individual atom. The occurrence of Bose-Einstein condensation is also related to superfluidity as suggested in [88]. Bose-Einstein condensation has been achieved experimentally independently by the groups of Cornell and Wieman [3] and Ketterle [40] earning them a Nobel prize in 2001. While Bose and Einstein analyzed theoretically the non-interacting gas, an effective theory describing weakly interacting Bose gases was proposed by Bogoliubov in 1947 with the goal of explaining the occurrence of superfluidity in liquid helium [18]. Using assumptions such as that condensation indeed occurs, his theory yields predictions for the low-energy states of the system. Seen from the mathematics perspective, describing the Bose gas is an interesting challenge due to the strong correlations between particles introduced by the interaction making this case much harder to study than the non-interacting one. In particular, a proof that Bose-Einstein condensation occurs in the thermodynamic limit for continuous systems is still out of reach. However, there has been a lot of work regarding the rigorous analysis of bosonic systems in various relevant regimes. This thesis contains three new contributions establishing rigorous results on bosonic systems in different, physically relevant settings. It is based on the articles [37, 27, 31]. The first result concerns the time-evolution of initially trapped Bose gases in the ultra-dilute Gross-Pitaevskii regime. Under some assumptions on the initial data satisfied in particular by a class of states that are expected to approximate the ground state in a trap, we derive a quasi-free approximation that is close to the true solution in L2L^2L2-norm. In particular, we show that this approximate wave function is described in terms of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a one-particle state following the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation together with pair excitations with respect to this condensate. As a corollary, we establish a central limit theorem for bounded one-particle observables. The second result is a simple proof of Bose-Einstein condensation for interacting, ultra-dilute gases. More specifically, we consider scalings interpolating between the Gross-Pitaevskii regime and the thermodynamic limit. While condensation had been shown to hold in these regimes before, the advantage of the method used here is its simplicity. Lastly, the third result establishes an upper bound on the ground state energy of a dilute Bose gas in the thermodynamic limit. It captures rigorously the third order correction to the energy per unit volume for sufficiently low densities as predicted in the physics literature first by Wu and subsequently others. Full-text embargoed until: 2026-01-01\textit{Full-text embargoed until: 2026-01-01}Full-text embargoed until: 2026-01-01
In this paper, we study interacting bosons at zero temperature in a random and higher-dimensional continuum model introduced by Kac and Luttinger. For weak interactions we prove that there is condensation in the lowest eigenstate of the one-particle Hamiltonian (type-I BEC). For strong interactions, however, we show that condensation in a localized state cannot occur. We also prove generalized condensation, where a family of eigenstates of the one-particle Hamiltonian is macroscopically occupied as a whole. Combining these results yields a scenario where there is generalized condensation into a family of eigenstates of the one-particle Hamiltonian, but none of them is macroscopically occupied itself (type-III BEC). This proves a transition in the type of condensation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first rigorous result in this direction for a random continuum model in higher dimensions.