Two characteristic temperatures for a Bose-Einstein condensate of a finite number of particles

Abstract

We consider two characteristic temperatures for a Bose-Einstein condensate, that are related to certain properties of the condensate statistics. We calculate them for an ideal gas confined in power-law traps and show that they approach the critical temperature in the limit of large number of particles. The considered characteristic temperatures can be useful in the studies of Bose-Einstein condensates of a finite number of atoms, indicating the point of a phase transition.

4 pages, 2 figures; v2: references added