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Science 25 October 2002:
Vol. 298. no. 5594, pp. 760 - 761
DOI: 10.1126/science.1078819
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Perspectives

QUANTUM MECHANICS:
To Condense or Not to Condense

T. M. Rice

Bosonic particles choose between a classical crystalline or a Bose-Einstein condensed ground state depending on the strength of their interactions. In his Perspective, Rice explains how this competition can be observed in quantum magnets composed of spin-dimer arrays when a magnetic field is applied. This generates spin triplet bosons with a tunable density. Magnetization plateaus correspond to spatially ordered arrays of the spin triplets. The detailed structure of such an array has been unraveled in a recent NMR experiment.

The author is at the Institut für Theoretische Physik, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland. E-mail: rice{at}itp.phys.ethz.ch

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)