The Nobel Prize in Physics 2001

Web Adapted Version of the Nobel Poster from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

  The Nobel Prize in Physics 2001  
 
 
The density of the atomic cloud is shown, with temperature decreasing from left to right. The high peak, the Bose-Einstein condensate, emerges above the other atoms. The picture is from the JILA laboratory.
 
 
 
…coldest!

Eric A. Cornell joined Wieman as a co-worker in the BEC project. Great progress was made and excitement grew as the temperature of the gas sank. Finally Cornell solved the remaining problem: that atoms tended to flow out of the pit at its centre. There they lost their magnetic orientation because the magnetic field was zero. By rotating the magnetic field of the atom trap, the hole could be shut, and in June 1995 the researchers achieved BEC of a few thousand rubidium atoms with mass number 87.
 
 

Contents:
| Introduction – Atoms in unison | Particles or Waves? Both! | Cold… | …colder… | …coldest! | Large condensates and interference patterns | The atomic laser | Further reading | Credits |

Based on materials from the 2001 Nobel Poster for Physics
 

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MLA style: The Nobel Prize in Physics 2001. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach 2025. Fri. 5 Dec 2025. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2001/9848-the-nobel-prize-in-physics-2001-2001/>

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