![]() Although Anderson and Heine helped popularize the name "condensed matter", it had been used in Europe for some years, most prominently in the Springer-Verlag journal Physics of Condensed Matter, launched in 1963. Etymology Īccording to physicist Philip Warren Anderson, the use of the term "condensed matter" to designate a field of study was coined by him and Volker Heine, when they changed the name of their group at the Cavendish Laboratories, Cambridge from Solid state theory to Theory of Condensed Matter in 1967, as they felt it better included their interest in liquids, nuclear matter, and so on. Douglas Stone makes a similar priority case for Einstein in his work on the synthetic history of quantum mechanics. ![]() Deputy Director of the Yale Quantum Institute A. According to founding director of the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, physics professor Manuel Cardona, it was Albert Einstein who created the modern field of condensed matter physics starting with his seminal 1905 article on the photoelectric effect and photoluminescence which opened the fields of photoelectron spectroscopy and photoluminescence spectroscopy, and later his 1907 article on the specific heat of solids which introduced, for the first time, the effect of lattice vibrations on the thermodynamic properties of crystals, in particular the specific heat. The Bell Telephone Laboratories was one of the first institutes to conduct a research program in condensed matter physics. Around the 1960s, the study of physical properties of liquids was added to this list, forming the basis for the more comprehensive specialty of condensed matter physics. Ī variety of topics in physics such as crystallography, metallurgy, elasticity, magnetism, etc., were treated as distinct areas until the 1940s, when they were grouped together as solid-state physics. The theoretical physics of condensed matter shares important concepts and methods with that of particle physics and nuclear physics. ![]() The field overlaps with chemistry, materials science, engineering and nanotechnology, and relates closely to atomic physics and biophysics. The diversity of systems and phenomena available for study makes condensed matter physics the most active field of contemporary physics: one third of all American physicists self-identify as condensed matter physicists, and the Division of Condensed Matter Physics is the largest division at the American Physical Society. Condensed matter physicists seek to understand the behavior of these phases by experiments to measure various material properties, and by applying the physical laws of quantum mechanics, electromagnetism, statistical mechanics, and other physics theories to develop mathematical models. More exotic condensed phases include the superconducting phase exhibited by certain materials at extremely low cryogenic temperature, the ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic phases of spins on crystal lattices of atoms, and the Bose–Einstein condensate found in ultracold atomic systems. ![]() More generally, the subject deals with condensed phases of matter: systems of many constituents with strong interactions among them. Condensed matter physics is the field of physics that deals with the macroscopic and microscopic physical properties of matter, especially the solid and liquid phases which arise from electromagnetic forces between atoms.
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