GS3 PYQ (Mains Answer Writing): Bose-Einstein Statistics | Science & Technology for UPSC CSE PDF Download

Discuss the work of ‘Bose-Einstein Statistics’ done by Prof. Satyendra Nath Bose and show how it revolutionized the field of Physics. (UPSC GS3 Mains)

Satyendra Nath Bose did path-breaking work on quantum mechanics in the early 1920s, using maths to describe the behavioural pattern of the bosons. Bose worked with Einstein providing the foundation for Bose-Einstein statistics and the Bose-Einstein condensate. 

• Bose figured out how a group of identical photons would behave. He sent his paper to Albert Einstein who recognized the value of his research work and extended it further under the name of Bose-Einstein Statistics. 
• The particles such as photons that obey these statistics are called bosons. One of the most dramatic effects of Bose-Einstein statistics is the prediction that bosons can overlap and coexist with other bosons. Fermions on the other hand cannot do this because they follow the Pauli Exclusion Principle (no two electrons in an atom can be at the same time in the same state or configuration). 
• Because of this, it is possible for photons to become a laser and some matter is able to form the exotic state of a Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC). A BEC is used to study quantum mechanics on a macroscopic level. Light appears to slow down as it passes through a BEC, allowing study of the particle/wave paradox. 
• A BEC also has many of the properties of a superfluid (flowing without friction). BECs are also used to simulate conditions that might apply in black holes.