What is a Bose-Einstein condensate?

Answer 1

Bose - Einstein CondensateWhen matter is cooled to within a very very small fraction of the coldest temperature it is possible to have (absolute zero) the atoms comprising the matter become stiller and stiller (heat is the movement/vibration of atoms). When they become very still, quantum effects become apparent and the atoms sort of merge into a single quantum unit called a A Bose-Einstein condensate. The atoms lose their individual identity and behave as a single unit.

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From Wikipedia: "A Bose-Einstein condensate is a phase of matter formed by bosons cooled to temperatures very near to absolute zero. The first such condensate was produced by Eric Cornell and Carl Wieman in 1995 at the University of Colorado at Boulder NIST- JILA lab, using a gas of rubidium atoms cooled to 170 nanokelvin (nK). Under such conditions, a large fraction of the atoms collapse into the lowest quantum state, at which point quantum effects become apparent on a macroscopic scale."

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