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Quantum fluids

Bose gases and their Fermi cousins

Nature volume 398, pages 195–198 (1999)Cite this article

The study of quantum degenerate gases continues to delight physicists, as was evident when researchers met to discuss progress at a workshop last monthFootnote 1. Most of the results concerned Bose-Einstein condensates of dilute alkali gases, a novel type of quantum fluid discovered back in 1995 (1–3) and now the workhorse of what is a rapidly growing field. A new technique for probing a condensate called ‘Bragg spectroscopy’4 (W. Ketterle, MIT) is important because it gives us, among other things, the first direct observation of atomic motion within a trapped condensate and yields a quantitative measure of long-range quantum coherence. Another highlight of the meeting was progress reported towards the quantum degeneracy of fermions, notably the cooling of a dilute gas of potassium atoms (D. Jin, JILA). The study of quantum degenerate fermionic systems like this one promises to be just as interesting as, and complementary to, studies of Bose-Einstein condensates, and also to yield new insights into the behaviour of quantum fluids.

*Workshop on Bose-Einstein Condensation and Degenerate Fermi Gases, Center for Theoretical, Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA, 10-12 February, 1999. Talks can be found at http://condon.colorado.edu/∼leland/CTAMOP/February99workshop.html

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Notes

  1. *Workshop on Bose-Einstein Condensation and Degenerate Fermi Gases, Center for Theoretical, Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA, 10-12 February, 1999. Talks can be found at http://condon.colorado.edu/∼leland/CTAMOP/February99workshop.html

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  1. Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, 700 Mountain Avenue, Murray Hill, New Jersey, 07974, USA

    Michael R. Andrews

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Andrews, M. Bose gases and their Fermi cousins. Nature 398, 195–198 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/18319

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