The discovery showed that, under certain conditions, gases can form into stable droplets — as liquids do — at extremely low temperatures, close to absolute zero, which is minus 273.15degC.
The German researchers have experimentally confirmed the Otago theoretical work and published their findings in the prestigious journal Nature.
The distinctive filament-shaped droplets were created and observed by the German scientists for the first time this year.
The gases being studied form Bose-Einstein condensate, a state of matter in which very cold atoms clump together and act as if they were a single atom.
United States scientists were the first to observe this state of matter, in 1995, and Otago University physicists later became the first in the southern hemisphere to observe it, in 1998.
Otago University physics researcher Prof Blair Blakie, who led the team developing the theory, first felt "shock" and then "great satisfaction" when he realised the Otago work had been confirmed.
This Otago work had been first published only earlier this year in the journal Physical Review A.
The recent work "opens up a new kind of direction" for future research and Otago physicists were "very excited" to be continuing to work in this rapidly advancing field, Prof Blakie said.
Being able to produce gas droplets opened the door to a range of potential applications, including use in sensing work, to make "highly precise measurements of magnetic fields", he said.
Prof Blakie is a member of the Dodd-Walls Centre for Photonic and Quantum Technologies, a national Centre of Research Excellence involving five universities and hosted by Otago University.
This work was supported by a Marsden Fund grant of about $800,000 to Prof Blakie, which supports lead author and Otago research fellow Danny Baillie.