The research objects of condensed matter physics include not only solid substances such as crystals, amorphous crystals and quasicrystals, but also dense gases, liquids and various intermediate condensed phases between liquids and solids, such as liquid helium, liquid crystals, molten salts, liquid metals, electrolytes, glasses and gels.

After half a century's development, condensed matter physics has made great progress, and the research object is expanding and more complicated. On the one hand, the research of various branches of traditional solid state physics, such as metal physics, semiconductor physics, magnetism, low temperature physics, dielectric physics and so on, is more in-depth and the links between branches are closer; On the other hand, many new branches are emerging, such as strongly correlated electronic system physics, disordered system physics, quasicrystal physics, mesoscopic physics and cluster physics.

Therefore, condensed matter physics has become one of the most important branches of physics at present, and the number of people engaged in condensed matter research is second to none among physicists, and the number of papers published every year ranks first among all branches of physics. It has effectively promoted the development of interdisciplinary subjects such as chemistry, physics, biophysics and geophysics.

What is condensed matter physics?

Condensed matter physics is a discipline that studies the structure and dynamic process of condensed matter composed of a large number of particles (atoms, molecules, ions and electrons) and its relationship with macroscopic physical properties from a microscopic point of view. Condensed matter physics is an outward extension based on solid state physics.