[Picture taken from the San Diego State University Website]
If you follow physics blogs in the internet you probably read Cosmic Variance, Backreaction, Not Even Wrong The Reference Frame etc. That's okay, I read them too. They are basically Cosmology and High Energy Physics blogs though and there is a part of physics that is not probably well represented there: Condensed Matter Physics.
For those to whom this word may seem unfamiliar, condensed matter is that part of physics that deal with how matter behaves when you have a lot of it. Superconductivity, superfluids, metals, crystals... they are all subjects of condensed matter. These are thrilling topics as well and there are many wonderful things in this area that does not appear in those above cited (and side listed) blogs. That's why I am listing two very interesting blogs about the subject below and I myself will try to write more articles in this area. The two blogs are:
- Nanoscale Views (http://nanoscale.blogspot.com/), by Douglas Natelson
- Condensed Concepts (http://condensedconcepts.blogspot.com/), by Ross H. Mackenzie
Take a look at them. Browsing around these blogs you will understand how exciting condensed matter can be. Many important concepts in physics have their origins in condensed matter, like symmetry breaking for example, and the field is full of unsolved and intriguing problems. I will finish this flash post with a list of subjects that have been around for some time but are still hot today and that you will probably see them in those blogs and in mine as well:
- Supersolidity
- High Temperature Superconductors
- Spin Glasses
- Graphene
- Topological Order
- Quantum Phase Transitions
- Optical Lattices
- Fractional Quantum Hall Effect
- Anderson Localisation
Look around and have fun!
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