Bose-einstein vs. Electrodynamic Condensates: the Question of Order and Coherence

The remarkable recent experiments on ensembles of magnetically trapped ultracold alkali atoms have demonstrated the transition to a highly ordered phase, that has been attributed to the process of quantum-mechanical condensation, predicted long ago (1924) by Bose and Einstein. After having presented our argument against the above attribution, we show that the known phenomenology, including a discrepancy of about one order of magnitude with the predictions of Bose-Einstein condensation, is in good agreement with the electromagnetic coherence induced on the alkali atoms by the long range electrodynamic interactions. We also predict that for temperatures lower than a well defined T BEC , the state predicted by Bose and Einstein coexists with the new coherent electrodynamic state.