Lev Pitaevskii, University of Trento and Kapitza Institute for Physical Problems
Bose-Einstein condensate - a new state a matter


Bose-Einstein condensate of trapped cold atoms is a new state of matter. It can be considered as "compressed" classical de Broglie waves. Being classical, the dynamics of these waves depends explicitly on the Plank constant. The condensate exhibits properties of superfluidity and coherence. Experiments, which reveal these properties, are discussed. New peculiarities occurs when the condensate is placed in a periodic optical lattice. A few words about possible applications will be said.