Of Matters Condensed

TL;DR

This paper analyzes nine years of abstracts from the APS March Meeting to identify trends in condensed matter physics, revealing rapid changes and a shift towards materials science and engineering topics.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive trend analysis of condensed matter physics over nine years based on abstract text and data from a major scientific conference.

Findings

Condensed matter physics evolves rapidly compared to atomic, molecular, and optical physics.

There is a noticeable shift towards materials science and engineering topics.

The field's focus has increasingly moved into applied and interdisciplinary areas.

Abstract

The American Physical Society (APS) March Meeting of condensed matter physics has grown to nearly 10,000 participants, comprises 23 individual APS groups, and even warrants its own hashtag (#apsmarch). Here we analyze the text and data from March Meeting abstracts of the past nine years and discuss trends in condensed matter physics over this time period. We find that in comparison to atomic, molecular, and optical physics, condensed matter changes rapidly, and that condensed matter appears to be moving increasingly toward subject matter that is traditionally in materials science and engineering.