Bose-Einstein Condensation and Liquid Helium

The mathematical description of B.E. (Bose-Einstein) condensation is generalized so as to be applicable to a system of interacting particles. B.E. condensation is said to be present whenever the largest eigenvalue of the one-particle reduced density matrix is an extensive rather than an intensive quantity. Some transformations facilitating the practical use of this definition are given.

An argument based on first principles is given, indicating that liquid belium II in equilibrium shows B.E. condensation. For absolute zero, the argument is based on properties of the ground-state wave function derived from the assumption that there is no "long-range configurational order." A crude estimate indicates that roughly 8% of the atoms are "condensed" (note that the fraction of condensed particles need not be identified with $\frac{{\rho }_s}{\rho }$). Conversely, it is shown why one would not expect B.E. condensation in a solid. For finite temperatures Feynman's theory of the lambda-transition is applied: Feynman's approximations are shown to imply that our criterion of B.E. condensation is satisfied below the lambda-transition but not above it.