We report calculation of heat capacity of an attractive Bose-Einstein condensate, with the number N of bosons increasing and eventually approaching the critical number Ncr for collapse, using the correlated potential harmonics (CPH) method. Boson pai
rs interact via the realistic van der Waals potential. It is found that the transition temperature Tc increases initially slowly, then rapidly as N becomes closer to Ncr . The peak value of heat capacity for a fixed N increases slowly with N, for N far away from Ncr . But after reaching a maximum, it starts decreasing when N approaches Ncr . The effective potential calculated by CPH method provides an insight into this strange behavior.
We report exact numerical calculation of chemical potential, condensate fraction and specific heat of $N$ non-interacting bosons confined in an isotropic harmonic oscillator trap in one, two and three dimensions, as also for interacting bosons in a 3
D trap. Quasi phase transitions are observed in all these cases, including one-dimension, as shown by a rapid change of all the thermodynamic quantities at the transition point. The change becomes more rapid as $N$ increases in 2D and 3D cases. However with increase in $N$, the sudden change in the nature of specific heat, gets gradually wiped out in 1D, while it becomes more drastic in 2D and 3D. The sudden change in the nature of condensate fraction and chemical potential as $N$ increases becomes more drastic even in 1D. Defining transition exponents, which characterize the nature of a thermodynamic quantity at the transition point of a quasi phase transition, we evaluate them by careful numerical calculation very near the transition temperature. These exponents are found to be independent of the size of the system and whether the bosons are interacting or not, demonstrating their universality property.
