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SUMMARY:Measuring correlations at the critical temperature of a dilute Bos
 e gas - Michael Kohl\, University of Cambridge
DTSTART:20071121T111500Z
DTEND:20071121T121500Z
UID:TALK8492@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Michael Sutherland
DESCRIPTION:Phase transitions are among the most dramatic phenomena in nat
 ure. Minute variations in the conditions controlling a system trigger a fu
 ndamental change of its properties. In the critical regime near a\nsecond-
 order phase transition point the fluctuations of the order parameter are s
 o dominant that they completely govern the behavior of the system on all l
 ength scales. Using cold atomic gases\, we have\ndirectly observed critica
 l fluctuations of the order parameter near the phase transition of Bose-Ei
 nstein condensation. From the divergence of the correlation length versus 
 temperature we have determined its critical exponent nu. Despite our densi
 ties being nine orders of magnitude smaller and our interactions considera
 bly weaker\, we find a remarkable\nsimilarity to case of the lambda-transi
 tion of Helium-4.\n
LOCATION:Mott Seminar Room\, Cavendish Laboratory\, Department of Physics
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