What Do Condensed Matter Physicists Study?

[Swapnil]

Hi y'all, I have always heard of the word "condensed matter physicsts" here and there. Unitil recently, however, I realized that I have no idea what it means! What do condensed matter physicists do? What kind of things do they study? How is condensed matter physics different from QM or GR?

 

[marcusl]

They do all of what used to be called "solid state physics"--the study of solids, superconductivity, semiconductors, magnetic materials, etc.--plus areas like fluids, superfluids, Bose-Einstein condensates and nanotechnology. Others who work in this area can add to the list but you probably get the idea.

A separate "new" category is soft matter physics, which is the study of polymers, membranes (biological, not the 'branes of cosmology), proteins, gels and so on.