Particle vs. pair condensation in attractive Bose liquids

The competition between particle and pair condensation in Bose liquids is studied using a mean field variational ground state that comprises both the Bogoliubov approximation for weakly interacting Bose gases and the Valatin-Butler pair state. We first consider structureless bosons, disregarding the fact that an attractive gas will necessarily collapse. We show that a pair state occurs only if the attraction is strong enough to bind two bosons together. The limit of low densities is treated exactly. At higher density, we use a separable interaction model and we show that the pairs dissociate at a critical density Nc (where their ionization gap vanishes). Past that threshold, ordinary particle condensation sets in. In order to cure collapse, we consider bosons with an internal spin structure : the interaction is binding in some states, repulsive on the average. Taking spin 1 particles as an example, we repeat the previous analysis, and we substantiate its conclusions while retaining a positive compressibility. In the pair regime the ground state is isotropic (singlet pairs). Past the dissociation threshold, an anisotropic one particle condensate appears. We show that it is linearly polarized (in an arbitrary direction), and non fragmented. We discuss briefly its physical properties, and we suggest that the transition from pair to particle condensation might be first order.