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Condensed matter physics
 
 
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Condensed matter physics is the field of physics
Physics

Physics is the natural science which examines basic concepts such as energy, force, and spacetime and all that derives from these, such as mass, charge, matter and its Motion ....
 that deals with the macroscopic and microscopic physical properties of matter
Matter

In common usage, matter is anything that has both mass and volume . A more rigorous definition is used in science: matter is what atoms and molecules are made of....
. In particular, it is concerned with the "condensed" phases
Phase (matter)

In the physical sciences, a phase is a region of space , throughout which all physical properties of a material are essentially uniform. Examples of physical properties include density, refractive index, and chemical composition....
 that appear whenever the number of constituents in a system is extremely large and the interactions between the constituents are strong. The most familiar examples of condensed phases are solids
Solid-state physics

Solid-state physics, the largest branch of condensed matter physics, is the study of rigid matter, or solids, through methods such as quantum mechanics, crystallography, electromagnetism and metallurgy....
 and liquid
Liquid

Liquid is one of the principal states of matter. A liquid is a fluid that has the particles loose and can freely form a distinct surface at the boundaries of its bulk material....
s, which arise from the bonding and electromagnetic force
Electromagnetic force

In physics, the electromagnetic force is the force that the electromagnetic field exerts on electrically charged particles. It is the electromagnetic force that holds electrons and protons together in atoms, and which hold atoms together to make molecules....
 between atom
Atom

|-! bgcolor=gray | Properties|-||}The atom is a basic unit of matter consisting of a dense, central atomic nucleus surrounded by a electron cloud of electric charge electrons....
s.






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Condensed matter physics is the field of physics
Physics

Physics is the natural science which examines basic concepts such as energy, force, and spacetime and all that derives from these, such as mass, charge, matter and its Motion ....
 that deals with the macroscopic and microscopic physical properties of matter
Matter

In common usage, matter is anything that has both mass and volume . A more rigorous definition is used in science: matter is what atoms and molecules are made of....
. In particular, it is concerned with the "condensed" phases
Phase (matter)

In the physical sciences, a phase is a region of space , throughout which all physical properties of a material are essentially uniform. Examples of physical properties include density, refractive index, and chemical composition....
 that appear whenever the number of constituents in a system is extremely large and the interactions between the constituents are strong. The most familiar examples of condensed phases are solids
Solid-state physics

Solid-state physics, the largest branch of condensed matter physics, is the study of rigid matter, or solids, through methods such as quantum mechanics, crystallography, electromagnetism and metallurgy....
 and liquid
Liquid

Liquid is one of the principal states of matter. A liquid is a fluid that has the particles loose and can freely form a distinct surface at the boundaries of its bulk material....
s, which arise from the bonding and electromagnetic force
Electromagnetic force

In physics, the electromagnetic force is the force that the electromagnetic field exerts on electrically charged particles. It is the electromagnetic force that holds electrons and protons together in atoms, and which hold atoms together to make molecules....
 between atom
Atom

|-! bgcolor=gray | Properties|-||}The atom is a basic unit of matter consisting of a dense, central atomic nucleus surrounded by a electron cloud of electric charge electrons....
s. More exotic condensed phases include the superfluid
Superfluid

Superfluidity is a phase or description of heat capacity in which unusual effects are observed when liquids, typically of helium-4 or helium-3, overcome friction by surface interaction when at a stage at which the liquid's viscosity becomes zero....
 and the Bose-Einstein condensate found in certain atomic systems at very low temperature
Temperature

In physics, temperature is a physical property of a Physical system that underlies the common notions of hot and cold; something that feels hotter generally has the greater temperature....
s, the superconducting
Superconductivity

Superconductivity is a phenomenon occurring in certain materials generally at very low temperatures, characterized by exactly zero electrical resistance and the exclusion of the interior magnetic field ....
 phase exhibited by conduction electrons in certain materials, and the ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic phases of spin
Spin (physics)

In quantum mechanics, spin is a fundamental property of atomic nucleus, hadrons, and elementary particles. For particles with non-zero spin, spin direction is an important intrinsic degrees of freedom ....
s on atomic lattices. Condensed matter physics is that branch of physics which deals with the macroscopic physical properties of matter namely, solid and liquid, when their constituents are large and strong.

Condensed matter physics is by far the largest field of contemporary physics. Much progress has also been made in theoretical condensed matter physics. By one estimate, one third of all United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 physicist
Physicist

A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many Physics#Major fields of physics spanning all length scales: from atom particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole ....
s identify themselves as condensed matter physicists. Historically, condensed matter physics grew out of solid-state physics
Solid-state physics

Solid-state physics, the largest branch of condensed matter physics, is the study of rigid matter, or solids, through methods such as quantum mechanics, crystallography, electromagnetism and metallurgy....
, which is now considered one of its main subfields. The term "condensed matter physics" was apparently coined by Philip Anderson
Philip Warren Anderson

Philip Warren Anderson is an United States physicist and Nobel laureate. Anderson has made contributions to the theories of Anderson localization, antiferromagnetism and high-temperature superconductivity....
 and Volker Heine
Volker Heine

Volker Heine Fellow of the Royal Society is a New Zealand-United Kingdom physicist.He was educated at Wanganui Collegiate School and the University of Otago, then Clare College, Cambridge where he became a fellow and professor....
 when they renamed their research group at Cavendish Laboratory
Cavendish Laboratory

The Cavendish Laboratory is the University of Cambridge's Department of Physics, and is part of the university's School of Physical Sciences. It was opened in 1874 as a teaching laboratory and was initially located on the New Museums Site, Free School Lane, in the centre of Cambridge....
 - previously "solid-state theory" - in 1967. In 1978, the Division of Solid State Physics at the American Physical Society
American Physical Society

The American Physical Society was founded in 1899 and is the world's second largest organization of physicists, behind the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft....
 was renamed as the Division of Condensed Matter Physics. Condensed matter physics has a large overlap with chemistry
Chemistry

Chemistry is the science concerned with the composition, structure, and properties of matter, as well as the changes it undergoes during chemical reactions....
, materials science
Materials science

Materials science or materials engineering is an interdisciplinary field involving the properties of matter and its applications to various areas of science and engineering....
, nanotechnology
Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology, shortened to "Nanotech", is the study of the control of matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally nanotechnology deals with structures of the size 100 nanometers or smaller, and involves developing materials or devices within that size....
 and engineering
Engineering

Engineering is the discipline and profession of applying Technology and science knowledge and utilizing natural laws and physical resources in order to design and implement materials, structures, machines, devices, systems, and process that safely realize a desired objective and meet specified criteria....
.

One of the reasons for calling the field "condensed matter physics" is that many of the concepts and techniques developed for studying solids actually apply to fluid systems. For instance, the conduction electron
Electron

The electron is a subatomic particle that carries a negative electric charge. It has elementary particle and is believed to be a point particle....
s in an electrical conductor
Electrical conductor

In science and Electrical engineering, an electrical conductor is a material which contains movable electric charges. In metallic conductors, such as copper or aluminum, the movable charged particles are electrons ....
 form a type of quantum fluid with essentially the same properties as fluids made up of atoms. In fact, the phenomenon of superconductivity
Superconductivity

Superconductivity is a phenomenon occurring in certain materials generally at very low temperatures, characterized by exactly zero electrical resistance and the exclusion of the interior magnetic field ....
, in which the electrons condense into a new fluid phase in which they can flow without dissipation, is very closely analogous to the superfluid
Superfluid

Superfluidity is a phase or description of heat capacity in which unusual effects are observed when liquids, typically of helium-4 or helium-3, overcome friction by surface interaction when at a stage at which the liquid's viscosity becomes zero....
 phase found in He 4 at low temperatures and He 3 when two of these atoms pair and thus take on boson properties.

Topics in condensed matter physics


  • Phase
    Phase (matter)

    In the physical sciences, a phase is a region of space , throughout which all physical properties of a material are essentially uniform. Examples of physical properties include density, refractive index, and chemical composition....
    s
    • Generic phases - Gas
      Gas

      In physics, a gas is a state of matter, consisting of a collection of particles without a definite shape or volume that are in more or less random motion....
      (* uncondensed); Liquid
      Liquid

      Liquid is one of the principal states of matter. A liquid is a fluid that has the particles loose and can freely form a distinct surface at the boundaries of its bulk material....
      ; Solid
      Solid

      A solid object is in the states of matter characterized by resistance to deformation and changes of volume. In other words, it has high values both of Young's modulus and of shear modulus; this contrasts e.g....
    • Low temperature phases - Bose-Einstein condensate; Fermi gas
      Fermi gas

      A Fermi gas, or Free electron gas, is a collection of non-interacting fermions. It is the quantum mechanics version of an ideal gas, for the case of fermionic particles....
      ; Fermi liquid
      Fermi liquid

      Fermi liquid is a generic term for a quantum mechanics liquid of fermions that arises under certain physical conditions when the temperature is sufficiently low....
      ; Fermionic condensate
      Fermionic condensate

      A fermionic condensate is a superfluid Phase formed by fermionic particles at low temperatures. It is closely related to the Bose-Einstein condensate, a superfluid phase formed by bosonic atoms under similar conditions....
      ; Luttinger liquid
      Luttinger liquid

      A Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid, more often referred to as simply a Luttinger liquid, is a theoretical model describing interacting electrons in a one-dimensional electrical conductor ....
      ; Superfluid
      Superfluid

      Superfluidity is a phase or description of heat capacity in which unusual effects are observed when liquids, typically of helium-4 or helium-3, overcome friction by surface interaction when at a stage at which the liquid's viscosity becomes zero....
      ; Composite Fermions; Supersolid
      Supersolid

      A supersolid is a spatially ordered material with superfluid properties. Superfluidity is a special quantum state of matter in which a substance flows with zero viscosity ....
    • Phase phenomena - Order parameter; Phase transition
      Phase transition

      In thermodynamics, a phase transition is the transformation of a thermodynamic system from one phase to another.At phase-transition point, physical properties may undergo abrupt change- for instance, volume of the two phases may be vastly different....
      ; Cooling curve
      Cooling curve

      A cooling curve is a line graph that represents the change of Phase of matter, typically from a gas to a solid or a liquid to a solid. The independent variable is time and the dependent variable is temperature....
  • Interfaces
    • Surface tension
      Surface tension

      Surface tension is an attractive property of the surface of a liquid. It is what causes the surface portion of liquid to be attracted to another surface, such as that of another portion of liquid ....
    • Domain growth - Nucleation
      Nucleation

      Nucleation is the onset of a crystal in a small region. The phase transition can be the formation of a bubble or of a crystal from a liquid. Creation of liquid droplets in saturated vapor or the creation of gaseous bubbles in a saturated liquid is also characterized by nucleation ....
      ; Spinodal decomposition
      Spinodal decomposition

      Spinodal decomposition is a method by which a mixture of two or more materials can separate into distinct regions with different material concentrations....
    • Interfacial growth - Dendritic growth; Solidification fronts; Viscous fingering
      Viscous fingering

      Viscous fingering is the formation of patterns in a morphologically unstable interface between two fluids in a porous medium or in a Hele-Shaw cell....
  • Crystalline solids
    • Types - Insulator
      Electrical insulation

      An insulator, also called a dielectric, is a material that resists the flow of electric current. An insulating material has atoms with tightly bonded valence electrons....
      ; Metal
      Metal

      In chemistry, a metal is a chemical element whose atoms readily lose electrons to form positive ions , and form metallic bonds between other metal atoms and ionic bonds between nonmetal atoms....
      ; Semiconductor
      Semiconductor

      A semiconductor is a material that has electrical conductivity between those of a Electrical conductor and an electrical insulation; it can vary over that wide range either permanently or dynamically....
      ; Semimetal
      Semimetal

      A semimetal is a material with a small overlap in the energy of the Electrical conduction Electronic band structure and valence bands.However, the bottom of the conduction band is typically situated in a different part of momentum space than the top of the valence band....
    • Electronic properties - Band gap
      Band gap

      In solid state physics and related applied fields, a band gap, also called an energy gap or bandgap, is an energy range in a solid where no electron states exist....
      ; Bloch wave
      Bloch wave

      A Bloch wave or Bloch state, named after Felix Bloch, is the wavefunction of a particle placed in a Particle in a one-dimensional lattice ....
      ; Conduction band
      Conduction band

      In the physics field of semiconductors and Electrical insulations, the conduction band is the range of electron energy, higher than that of the valence band, sufficient to make the electrons free to accelerate under the influence of an applied electric field and thus constitute an electric current....
      ; Effective mass (solid-state physics); Electrical conduction
      Electrical conduction

      Electrical conduction is the movement of electric charge particles through a transmission medium . The movement of charge constitutes an Current ....
      ; Electron hole
      Electron hole

      An electron hole is the conceptual and mathematical opposite of an electron, useful in the study of physics and chemistry. The concept describes the lack of an electron....
      ; Valence band
      Valence band

      In solids, the valence band is the highest range of electron energy where electrons are normally present at absolute zero.In semiconductors and Electrical insulations, there is a band gap above the valence band, followed by a conduction band above that....
    • Electronic phenomena - Kondo effect
      Kondo effect

      In physics, according to the Kondo effect, the electrical resistance will diverge as the temperature approaches 0 K. The temperature dependence of the resistance including the Kondo effect is written as:...
      ; Plasmon
      Plasmon

      In physics, a plasmon is a quantum of Plasma oscillation. The plasmon is the quasiparticle resulting from the quantization of plasma oscillations just as photons and phonons are quantizations of light and sound waves, respectively....
      ; Quantum Hall effect
      Quantum Hall effect

      The quantum Hall effect is a quantum mechanics version of the Hall effect, observed in 2DEG subjected to low temperatures and strong magnetic fields, in which the Hall Electrical conductivity s takes on the quantized values...
      ; Superconductivity
      Superconductivity

      Superconductivity is a phenomenon occurring in certain materials generally at very low temperatures, characterized by exactly zero electrical resistance and the exclusion of the interior magnetic field ....
      ; Wigner crystal
      Wigner crystal

      A Wigner crystal is the solid phase of electrons first predicted by Eugene Wigner in 1934. A gas of electrons moving in 2D or 3D in a uniform, inert, neutralizing background will crystallize and form a lattice if the electron density is less than a critical value....
      ; Thermoelectricity
      Thermoelectricity

      Thermoelectricity refers to a class of phenomena in which a temperature difference creates an electric potential or an electric potential creates a temperature difference....
    • Lattice phenomena - Antiferromagnet; Ferroelectric effect; Ferromagnet; Magnon
      Magnon

      A magnon is a collective excitation of the electron' spin structure in a crystal lattice. In contrast, a phonon is a collective excitation of the crystal lattice atoms or ions....
      ; Phonon
      Phonon

      In physics, a phonon is a quantum mode of vibration occurring in a rigid crystal structure, such as the atomic lattice of a solid. The study of phonons is an important part of solid state physics, because phonons play a major role in many of the physical properties of solids, including a material's thermal conductivity and electrical conduc...
      ; Spin glass
      Spin glass

      A spin glass is a magnet with Geometrically frustrated magnet, augmented by stochastic disorder, where usually ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic bonds are randomly distributed....
      ; Topological defect
      Topological defect

      In mathematics and physics, a topological soliton or a topological defect is a solution of a system of partial differential equations or of a quantum field theory that can be proven to exist because the boundary conditions entail the existence of homotopy....
      ; Multiferroics
      Multiferroics

      Multiferroics have been formally defined as materials that exhibit more than one Ferroics order parameter simultaneously . The four basic primary ferroic order parameters are ferromagnetism, ferroelectricity, ferroelasticity and ferrotoroidicity, the latter still being under debate....
  • Non-crystalline solids
    • Types -Amorphous solid
      Amorphous solid

      An amorphous solid is a solid in which there is no long-range order of the positions of the atoms. . Most classes of solid materials can be found or prepared in an amorphous form....
      ; Granular matter; Quasicrystals
  • Soft condensed matter
    • Types - Liquid crystal
      Liquid crystal

      Liquid crystals are Chemical substances that exhibit a phase that has properties between those of a conventional liquid, and those of a solid crystal....
      s; Polymer
      Polymer

      A polymer is a large molecule composed of repeating structural units typically connected by covalent chemical bonds. While polymer in popular usage suggests plastic, the term actually refers to a large class of natural and synthetic materials with a variety of properties....
      s; Complex fluids
      Non-Newtonian fluid

      A non-Newtonian fluid is a fluid whose flow properties are not described by a single constant value of viscosity. Many polymer solutions and molten polymers are non-Newtonian fluids, as are many commonly found substances such as ketchup, starch suspensions, paint, blood and shampoo....
      ; Gel
      Gel

      A gel is a solid, gelatin material that can have properties ranging from soft and weak to hard and tough. Gels are defined as a substantially dilute crosslinked system, which exhibits no flow when in the steady-state....
      s; Foam
      Foam

      The most general definition of foam is a substance that is formed by trapping many gas bubbles in a liquid or solid. It can also refer to anything that is analogous to such a phenomenon, such as quantum foam....
      s; Emulsion
      Emulsion

      An emulsion is a mixture of two immiscible liquids. One liquid is dispersion in the other . Many emulsions are oil/water emulsions, with dietary fats being one common type of oil encountered in everyday life....
      s; Colloid
      Colloid

      A colloid is a type of chemical mixture where one substance is dispersed evenly throughout another. The particles of the dispersed substance are only suspended in the mixture, unlike a solution, where they are completely dissolved within....
      s
  • Nanotechnology
    Nanotechnology

    Nanotechnology, shortened to "Nanotech", is the study of the control of matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally nanotechnology deals with structures of the size 100 nanometers or smaller, and involves developing materials or devices within that size....
    • Nanoelectromechanical Systems (NEMS)
      Nanoelectromechanical systems

      Nanoelectromechanical systems or NEMS are similar to Microelectromechanical systems but smaller. They hold promise to improve abilities to measure small displacements and forces at a molecular scale, and are related to nanotechnology and nanomechanics....
    • Magnetic Resonance Force Microscopy
      Magnetic Resonance Force Microscopy

      Magnetic resonance force microscopy is an imaging technique that acquires magnetic resonance images at nanometer scales, and possibly at atomic scales in the future....
    • Heat Transport
      Heat transfer

      Heat transfer is the transition of thermal energy or simply heat from a hotter object to a cooler object . When an object or fluid is at a different temperature than its thermodynamic system or another object, transfer of thermal energy, also known as heat transfer, or heat exchange, occurs in such a way that the body and the surround...
       in Nanoscale Systems
    • Spin
      Spin (physics)

      In quantum mechanics, spin is a fundamental property of atomic nucleus, hadrons, and elementary particles. For particles with non-zero spin, spin direction is an important intrinsic degrees of freedom ....
       Transport


See also

  • Quantum field theory
    Quantum field theory

    Quantum field theory or QFT provides a theoretical framework for constructing quantum mechanics models of systems classically described by field or of Many-body problem....
  • Green–Kubo relations
  • Green's function (many-body theory)
    Green's function (many-body theory)

    In many-body theory, the term Green's function is sometimes used interchangeably with correlation function, but refers specifically to correlators of field operators or creation and annihilation operators....
  • Materials Science
    Materials science

    Materials science or materials engineering is an interdisciplinary field involving the properties of matter and its applications to various areas of science and engineering....
  • Molecular modeling software
    Software for molecular mechanics modeling

    This is a list of of computer programs that are predominantly used for molecular mechanics calculations.Min - Optimization,MD - Molecular Dynamics,...