Signals of Bose Einstein condensation and Fermi quenching in the decay of hot nuclear systems

TL;DR

This study provides experimental evidence of Bose-Einstein condensation and fermion quenching in hot nuclear systems, revealing how bosons and fermions behave differently during nuclear decay at sub-Fermi energies.

Contribution

First experimental observation of Bose-Einstein condensation signals in hot nuclear decay using advanced detection and quantum fluctuation analysis.

Findings

Evidence of Bose-Einstein condensation in nuclear decay

Bosons occupy smaller volumes than surrounding fermions

Results consistent with dilute mixed boson-fermion systems

Abstract

We report experimental signals of Bose-Einstein condensation in the decay of hot Ca projectile-like sources produced in mid-peripheral collisions at sub-Fermi energies. The experimental setup, constituted by the coupling of the INDRA 4$\pi$ detector array to the forward angle VAMOS magnetic spectrometer, allowed us to reconstruct the mass, charge and excitation energy of the decaying hot projectile-like sources. Furthermore, by means of quantum fluctuation analysis techniques, temperatures and mean volumes per particle "as seen by" bosons and fermions separately are correlated to the excitation energy of the reconstructed system. The obtained results are consistent with the production of dilute mixed (bosons/fermions) systems, where bosons experience a smaller volume as compared to the surrounding fermionic gas. Our findings recall similar phenomena observed in the study of boson condensates in atomic traps.