GROUND-STATE ENERGY OF THE LOW-DENSITY BOSE-GAS

Now that the properties of low temperature Bose gases at low density, rho, can be examined experimentally it is appropriate to revisit some of the formulas deduced by many authors four to five decades ago. One of these is that the leading term in the energy/particle is 2 pi (h) o ver bar(2) rho/m, where a is the scattering length. Owing to the delic ate and peculiar nature of bosonic correlations, four decades of resea rch have failed to establish this plausible formula rigorously. The on ly known lower bound for the energy was found by Dyson in 1957, but it was 14 times too small. The correct bound is proved here.