J. Tempere et al., A VARIATION PATH-INTEGRAL APPROACH TO THE THERMODYNAMICAL PROPERTIES OF A FINITE NUMBER OF TRAPPED RB-87 ATOMS, Solid state communications, 107(2), 1998, pp. 51-54
A variational path integral approach for a system of identical particl
es is presented which allows the incorporation of two-body interaction
s into the description of the thermodynamics of a confined Bose gas, u
sing the propagators of a harmonic trial system. This approach combine
s the statistical mechanics of bosons with equally spaced energy level
s with the field-theoretical methods used in the Gross-Pitaevskii equa
tion, bridging the characteristics of both theories and supporting the
conclusions reached on the basis of a two-fluid model for Rb. (C) 199
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