So what is that? It is certainly not the science of the very big, nor of the very small. Rather, cond-mat studies things that are in-between: a magnet; an ice cube; a superconductor; almost anything that is neither sub-atomic nor the size of a planet.
So what’s the point? For a physicist, what these things have in common is that they are complex: they are made up of myriad microscopic particles interacting with each other according to the laws of classical and quantum mechanics. Out of this complexity the world around us emerges, with all its beautiful and deceptively simple properties: magnets magnetize; water freezes; and a superconductor exhibits all that wonderful and fascinating quantum-mechanical behaviour.
At its heart, condensed matter physics is an attempt to understand this: how the simple yet fascinating properties of seemingly ordinary matter emerge from the complex motions of trillions upon trillions of minute particles that make it up.
I hope you will accompany me on my daily journeys through this wonderful landscape – and that you enjoy the trip.
Jorge Quintanilla, Harwell, 6 April 2009
