A century of Bose-Einstein condensation

This year marks the centenary of the theoretical prediction of Bose-Einstein condensation, a groundbreaking concept in quantum physics. Proposed by Satyendra Nath Bose and Albert Einstein in the 1920s, this state of matter occurs when a group of bosons is cooled to temperatures very close to absolute zero. At this extreme low temperature, the individual atoms lose their individual identities and behave as a single quantum entity, exhibiting wave-like properties on a macroscopic scale. This phenomenon has since been experimentally realized and has opened up new avenues for research in quantum mechanics and condensed matter physics.

The discovery and understanding of Bose-Einstein condensation have been pivotal in advancing our knowledge of quantum mechanics and have led to significant technological applications.