University of Copenhagen professor Søren Fournais studies Bose-Einstein condensates, where massive groups of atoms behave identically in a synchronized quantum state.
- Predicted by Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose and later expanded by Einstein in the 1920s.
- First successfully created in a laboratory in 1995.
- Considered a unique fifth state of matter.
Researchers still struggle to mathematically explain how millions of interacting particles transition into the same quantum state.
The Mathematical Challenge
Bose-Einstein condensation is a phase transition similar to water freezing into ice, but proving it mathematically remains extremely difficult.
Fournais hopes to better understand the equations behind these quantum systems through theoretical mathematics rather than computer simulations.