Bose-Einstein condensation in the presence of a uniform field and a point-like impurity

Abstract

The behavior of an ideal $D$-dimensional boson gas in the presence of a uniform gravitational field is analyzed. It is explicitly shown that, contrarily to an old standing folklore, the three-dimensional gas does not undergo Bose-Einstein condensation at finite temperature. On the other hand, Bose-Einstein condensation occurs at $T\ne 0$ for $D=1,2,3$ if there is a point-like impurity at the bottom of the vessel containing the gas.

14 pages, REVTEX. Revised version, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. A