# Transition Temperature of a Uniform Imperfect Bose Gas

## Abstract

We calculate the transition temperature of a uniform dilute Bose gas with repulsive interactions, using a known virial expansion of the equation of state. We find that the transition temperature is higher than that of an ideal gas, with a fractional increase $`K_0(na^3)^{1/6}`$, where $`n`$ is the density and $`a`$ is the S-wave scattering length, and $`K_0`$ is a constant given in the paper. This disagrees with all existing results, analytical or numerical. It agrees exactly in magnitude with a result due to Toyoda, but has the opposite sign.

The weakly interacting Bose gas is an old subject that has found new life since the experimental discovery of Bose-Einstein condensation in ultra-cold trapped atoms. Although there is a vast literature on the subject, the transition temperature of the interacting gas remains a controversial subject, even in the uniform case. In this note, we present a calculation that is simple and transparent, in the hope that it will settle the controversy.

In the ideal Bose gas, the condition determining the fugacity $`z`$ in the gas phase is

$$\lambda ^3n=g_{3/2}\left(z\right)$$
(1)   
where $`n`$ is the particle density, $`\beta =(k_BT)^1`$, $`\lambda =\sqrt{2\pi \beta \mathrm{}^2/m}`$ is the thermal wavelength, and

$$g_\alpha (z)\underset{\mathrm{}=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{z^{\mathrm{}}}{\mathrm{}^\alpha }.$$
(2)   
No single-particle state has a macroscopic occupation in this phase. However, the function $`g_{3/2}\left(z\right)`$ is monotonic, and bounded by $`g_{3/2}(1)=\zeta (3/2)=2.612`$. Thus, particles must go into the zero-momentum state when $`\lambda ^3n>\zeta (3/2)`$, making this state macroscopically occupied. This gives the transition temperature of the ideal Bose gas at a fixed density $`n`$:

$$T_0=\frac{2\pi \mathrm{}^2}{mk_B}\left[\zeta (3/2)\right]^{2/3}.$$
(3)   
Now consider a uniform imperfect Bose gas with repulsive interactions with equivalent hard-sphere diameter $`a`$ (S-wave scattering length). We denote the transition temperature by $`T_c`$, and its fractional shift by

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }T}{T_0}\frac{T_cT_0}{T_0}.$$
(4)   
In an early statement on the subject , it was argued that $`\mathrm{\Delta }T>0`$, since a spatial repulsion leads to momentum-space attraction, and this would make the imperfect gas more ready to condense. However, a Hartree-Fock calculation by Fetter and Walecka , and one by Girardeau  based on a mean-field method, yield the opposite sign $`\mathrm{\Delta }T<0`$. A calculation of the grand partition to one-loop order by Toyoda  also yields a negative sign. Specifically, Toyoda obtains

$$\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }T}{T_0}\right)_{\text{Toyoda}}=K_0(na^3)^{1/6}$$
(5)   
where

$$K_0=\frac{8\sqrt{2\pi }}{3\left[\zeta (3/2)\right]^{2/3}}=3.527.$$
(6)   
Barring calculational errors, this must be considered reliable, since it is the lowest-order result of a systematic expansion. All subsequent calculations, alas, yield answers different from this and from one another. Stoof  gives $`\mathrm{\Delta }Ta^{3/2}`$, while Bijlsma and Stoof  obtain $`\mathrm{\Delta }Ta^{1/2}`$. A numerical calculation based on Monte-Carlo simulation by Grüter et al. gives $`\mathrm{\Delta }T/T_0=c_0(na^3)^\gamma `$, where $`c_0=0.34\pm 0.06`$, and $`\gamma =0.34\pm 0.03`$. A recent calculation involving some mean-field assumptions  gives $`\mathrm{\Delta }T/T_0=0.7(na^3)^{1/3}`$. Thus, there is no consensus on how $`\mathrm{\Delta }T`$ should depend on the scattering length, nor even the sign!

We shall calculate $`T_c`$ using an extension of (1) obtained some time ago via the virial expansion. To lowest order in a power series in $`a`$, the result is

$$\lambda ^3n=g_{3/2}\left(z\right)\left[1\frac{4a}{\lambda }g_{1/2}\left(z\right)\right].$$
(7)   
As a function of $`z`$, the right side rises through a maximum at some value $`z=z_c`$, and then approaches $`\mathrm{}`$ as $`z1`$. Thus, as in the ideal case, the right side is bounded from above, and the bound occurs at $`z_c`$. Since the treatment is valid only when $`a/\lambda 1`$, we put

$$z_c=1\delta (\delta 1).$$
(8)   
The maximum can be located with the help of the expansions 

$`g_{3/2}\left(z_c\right)`$ $``$ $`\zeta (3/2)2\sqrt{\pi }\delta ^{1/2}`$ (9)   
$`g_{1/2}\left(z_c\right)`$ $``$ $`\sqrt{\pi }\delta ^{1/2}.`$ (10)   
We then find

$$\delta =\frac{2a}{\lambda }\zeta (3/2).$$
(11)   
The critical temperature $`T_c`$ can be found by substituting this value into (7), with the result

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }T}{T_0}=K_0(na^3)^{1/6}$$
(12)   
where $`K_0`$ is given in (6). Thus, we agree exactly with Toyoda except for the sign. Since the derivation here is simple and transparent, we believe Toyoda made a sign error.

In order to obtain a shift in the transition temperature, it is necessary to incorporate interactions in the gas phase, and that is why the virial expansion is useful. On the other hand, the quasiparticle picture introduced via the Bogoliubov transformation is not helpful here, because the quasiparticles reduce to non-interacting particles at the transition point.