Researchers obtain Bose-Einstein condensate with nickel chloride

Bose-Einstein condensates, often called the “fifth state of matter,” are obtained when atoms are cooled almost to absolute zero. Under these conditions, the particles no longer have free energy to move relative to on another, and some of these particles, called bosons, fall into the same quantum states and cannot be distinguished individually. At this point, the atoms start obeying what are known as Bose-Einstein statistics, which are usually applied to identical particles. In a Bose-Einstein condensate, the entire group of atoms behaves as though it were a single atom.