An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
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A state of matter in which a group of atoms or subatomic particles, cooled to within → absolute zero, coalesce into a single quantum mechanical entity that can be described by a → wave function. When a group of atoms are cooled down to very near absolute zero, the atoms hardly move relative to each other, because they have almost no free energy to do so. Hence the atoms clump together and enter the same → ground energy states. They become identical and the whole group starts behaving as though it were a single atom. A Bose-Einstein condensate results from a → quantum transition phase called the → Bose-Einstein condensation. This form of matter was predicted in 1924 by Albert Einstein on the basis of the quantum formulations of the Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose.
Bose-Einstein condensate was created for the first time in the laboratory in 1995. The three physicist who succeeded in producing BEC, Eric A. Cornell, Wolfgang Ketterle, and Carl E. Wieman, were awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics. Cornell and Wieman managed to do that with about 2,000 → rubidium atoms cooled down to 20 nano K, while Ketterle used more than 100,000 → sodium atoms.

→ boson; → Einstein; → condensate.