[Historical report created from GSU BEC Homepage:]

"Word is just in of the first BEC observed in the State of Bavaria.

We are informed that in the early morning of 21 January, 1998, BEC was observed in 87Rb by Tilman Esslinger and Immanuel Bloch, who work in the laboratory of Ted Hänsch at the University of Munich/ Max-Planck-Institute for Quantum Optics. Images of the condensate can be found at http://www.mpq.mpg.de/~haensch

Our preliminary information on the condensate parameters is as follows:

• Atomic species: ⁸⁷Rb, F = 2, M_F = +2
• Transition temperature: T_c = 530 nK
• Number of atoms above T_c: N = approximately 10⁶
• Number of atoms in the condensate: N₀ approximately 10⁵
• Atom source: Double MOT setup
• Magnetic trap: Combined DC quadrupole-Ioffe type configuration
• Evaporative cooling time: 20 sec"