Equivalence of the master equation approach to the canonical ensemble approach for an ideal Bose gas

Abstract

A picture of the condensate statistics of a confined Bose gas, which is more relevant to recent experimental realizations, can be obtained by the canonical ensemble approach. Nevertheless, handling the particle number conservation condition entering therein is a formidable task. A recent method developed to deal with this problem is a non-equilibrium master equation approach based on the quantum theory of laser. We show here how the equilibrium solution of this master equation is faithful to the canonical ensemble.