One of two possible ways (the other is Fermi-Dirac statistics ) in which a collection of indistinguishable particles may occupy a set of available discrete energy states.
The gathering of particles in the same state, which is characteristic of particles that obey Bose-Einstein statistics, accounts for the cohesive streaming of laser light and the frictionless creeping of superfluid helium (see superfluidity ). The theory of this behaviour was developed in 1924–25 by Satyendra Nath Bose (1894–1974) and boson s, which have integer values of spin and so do not obey the Pauli exclusion principle .