Allan Griffin works in theoretical condensed matter theory and is Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Toronto. He received his BSc (1960) and MSc (1961) from the University of British Columbia, and his PhD at Cornell University (1965). Dr Griffin has spent research sabbaticals at the KFA Julich (Germany), the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble (France), Kyoto University (Japan), the University of Trento (Italy) and was a JILA Fellow at the University of Colorado (USA). His research has been on superfluid He4, superconductivity and theory of ultracold atoms. He has been a short-term visiting professor at the ANU in Canberra (Australia), the Collège de France in Paris, and the University of Otago (New Zealand). Dr Griffin is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (2003), a Fellow of the American Physical Society (2004), and received the Bronze Medal from the Collège de France (2001). He is the author of a monograph on Bose liquids (1993) and the editor of a well-known book on Bose-Einstein condensation (1995), both published by Cambridge University Press.

This is the first book devoted to Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) as an interdisciplinary subject, covering atomic and molecular physics, laser physics, low temperature physics and astrophysics. It contains 18 authoritative review articles on experimental and theoretical research in BEC and associated phenomena. Bose-Einstein condensation is a phase transition in which a macroscopic number of particles all go into the same quantum state. It has been known for some time that this phenomenon gives rise to superfluidity in liquid helium but recent research has focused on the search for BEC in other condensed matter systems, such as excitons, spin-polarised hydrogen, laser-cooled atoms, high-temperature superconductors and subatomic matter. This unique book gives an in-depth report on progress in this field and suggests promising research topics for the future. It will be of interest to graduate students and research workers in condensed matter, low temperature, atomic and laser physics.