Proof of off-diagonal long-range order in a mean-field trapped Bose gas via the Feynman–Kac formula

We consider the non-interacting Bose gas of N bosons in dimension d≥3 in a trap in a mean-field setting with a vanishing factor aN in front of the kinetic energy. The choice aN=N−2∕d is the semi-classical setting and was analysed in great detail in a special, interacting case in [DS21]. Using a version of the well-known Feynman–Kac representation and a further representation in terms of a Poisson point process, we derive precise asymptotics for the reduced one-particle density matrix, implying off-diagonal long-range order (ODLRO, a well-known criterion for Bose–Einstein condensation) for aN above a certain threshold and non-occurrence of ODLRO for aN below that threshold. In particular, we relate the condensate and its total mass to the amount of particles in long loops in the Feynman–Kac formula, the order parameter that Feynman suggested in [Fe53]. For aN≪N−2∕d, we prove that all loops have the minimal length one, and for aN≫N−2∕d we prove 100 percent condensation and identify the distribution of the long-loop lengths as the Poisson–Dirichlet distribution.