Abstract We study thermodynamic properties of weakly interacting Bose gases above the transition temperature of Bose–Einstein condensation in the framework of a thermodynamic perturbation theory. Cases of local and non-local interactions between particles are analyzed both analytically and numerically. We obtain and compare the temperature dependencies for the chemical potential, entropy, pressure, and specific heat to those of noninteracting gases. The results set reliable benchmarks for thermodynamic characteristics and their asymptotic behavior in dilute atomic and molecular Bose gases above the transition temperature.
This colloquium surveys a number of theoretical problems and open questions in the field of two-dimensional dilute Bose gases with weak repulsive interactions. In contrast to three dimensions, in two dimensions the formation of long-range order is prohibited by the Bogoliubov-Hohenberg theorem, and Bose-Einstein condensation is not expected to occur. Nevertheless, experimental indications supporting the formation of a condensate in low-dimensional systems have recently been obtained. This unexpected behavior appears to be due to the nonuniformity introduced into a system by the external trapping potential. Theoretical predictions, made for homogeneous systems, require therefore careful reexamination. A number of popular theoretical treatments of the dilute weakly interacting Bose gas are presented and their regions of applicability are discussed. The possibility of Bose-Einstein condensation in a two-dimensional gas, the validity of the perturbative
t-matrix approximation, and the diluteness condition are issues also discussed in detail.
We discuss the equilibrium properties of dilute Bose gases using a nonperturbative formalism based on auxiliary fields related to the normal and anomalous densities. We show analytically that for a dilute Bose gas of weakly interacting particles at zero temperature, the leading-order auxiliary field (LOAF) approximation leads to well-known analytical results. Close to the critical point the LOAF predictions are the same as those obtained using an effective field theory in the large-
N approximation. We also report analytical approximations for the LOAF results in the unitarity limit, which compare favorably with our numerical results. LOAF predicts that the equation of state for the Bose gas in the unitarity limit is
E/(pV)=1, unlike the case of the Fermi gas when
E/(pV)=3/2.