Canonical ensemble ground state and correlation entropy of Bose–Einstein condensate

Abstract

Constraint of a fixed total number of particles yields a correlation between the fluctuation of particles in different states in the canonical ensemble. Here we show that, below the temperature of Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC), the correlation part of the entropy of an ideal Bose gas is cancelled by the ground-state contribution. Thus, in the BEC region, the thermodynamic properties of the gas in the canonical ensemble can be described accurately in a simplified model which excludes the ground state and assumes no correlation between excited levels.

Keywords

• canonical ensemble
• entropy
• Bose–Einstein condensate