Quantitative BEC Results Reported at DAMOP Meeting

Now that the rantare of simply creating a Bose–Einstein condensate in a dilute atomic gas has died down (see the “Reference Frame” column by Daniel Kleppner on page 11), the leading research groups are proceeding in earnest to map out the properties of their condensates. Four experimental groups reported their latest results in invited talks at a session on Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC) at the meeting of the American Physical Society's Division of Atomic and Molecular Physics (DAMOP) held in Ann Arbor in May.