Can Bose-Einstein condensates enhance radioactive decay?

Abstract

This paper lays out the principles of how Bose-Einstein condensates can modify radioactive decay. We highlight the challenges of many modes and short coherence times due to the $\approx$ MeV energies of the emitted radiation. Recent proposals for gamma ray and neutrino lasers claim that using a Bose-Einstein condensate as a source would solve these issues. We show that this is not the case, and the proposed experiments would have a gain of only $10^{-16}$ or smaller. We also analyze proposals for gamma ray lasers based on stimulated annihilation of positronium Bose-Einstein condensates.

Accepted by Physical Review Letters