SATYENDRA NATH BOSE

Why in the News?

The eminent physicist S.N.Bose was remembered on his 50^th death anniversary.

About S.N.Bose (1894-1974) Early life Hailed from Nadia district of West Bengal. Joined the Presidency college of Kolkata His teachers included Prafulla Chandra Ray and Jagadish Chandra Bose.  Worked in the Physics department of University of Calcutta and Dacca University.   Rewards and Recognitions  Referred as "Father of the God Particle" The fundamental particle ‘Bosons’ were named after him. Awarded Padma Vibhushan in 1954. Rabindranath Tagore dedicated his only book on science – ‘Vishwa Parichay’ to SN Bose. Served as Vice- Chancellor of the Visva-Bharati (1956-58)  S. N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences (Kolkata) was established in 1986 in his remembrance.

Scientific Contributions of S.N Bose

• Bose-Einstein Condensates (BEC): It is a quantum phenomenon predicted by Bose and Einstein (1925). It is a state of matter created when particles are cooled to near absolute zero (-273.15 degrees Celsius/0 Kelvin). 
  • All the atoms become a single entity at this point, and possess quantum properties, wherein each particle together functions as a wave of matter
  • Referred to as the 'fifth state of matter', it was proved experimentally by Weimann, Cornell and Ketterle for which they received Nobel prize in 2001.
  • Properties of BEC include: 
    • Super fluidity: BEC has zero viscosity and can flow without resistance. 
    • Super conductivity: The zero resistance leads to optimal conductivity.
    • Coherence: All particles in the BEC are in the same quantum state behaving as a single entity.
    • Macroscopic Occupation: In a BEC, a number of particles occupy a same quantum state, leading to a macroscopic wave function.

• Bose-Einstein Statistics: Earlier proposed as a statistical procedure for counting possible states of a quantum system composed of identical particles with integer spin for light quanta in 1924 by Bose.
  • The statistics was extended to gas molecules by Einstein.
  • Particles which obey Bose-Einstein Statistics principle are referred as “Bosons”.
    • Bosons are particles with integer spin and include photons (light), gluons (particles that act as force carriers in the nucleus), the Higgs boson, and the W and Z bosons.

• X-ray diffraction cameras: Designed and constructed by him for rotation and powder photography.