Demystifier
Science Advisor
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I would put it this way. Both communities use symmetry to understand the most interesting part of their branch of physics. In high-energy physics the most interesting question is what happens at the highest energies, for this is were new particles are expected to appear. By contrast, in condensed matter the high-energy level (atoms) is well understood and quite boring, while the most interesting phenomena, including new quasi-particles, happen at low energies (large scales).vanhees71 said:Can you explain the meaning of these enigmatic statements? Also in condensed matter physics the highest symmetry is reached at (asymptotic) high energies, where matter becomes an ideal gas of elementary particles (of quite probably yet unknown fundamental degrees of freedom), but that cannot be what the condensed-matter physicist wanted to express.
In general, of course, old symmetries may disappear and new ones appear in both directions in the energy-scale, in both particle physics and cond mat physics. But it has to do with psychology in the two communities, with what is considered "interesting" and "important". People look for symmetry in the "interesting" things, whatever they are.
But why then symmetry is considered less important in cond mat? The general rule is that larger scales usually involve more complexity, and that more complexity usually involves less symmetry. Therefore in cond mat the most interesting things involve more complexity and hence less symmetry.
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