Neither solid state nor condensed matter physics existed at the end of World War II. Physical problems related to the properties of materials, of course, have a much longer history, but the physics community was not yet subdivided in a way that recognised those efforts as distinct branches of physics. By the time condensed matter physics became the preferred term in the late 1970s, it was far...
The Italian physicists who devoted themselves to the study of solid-state physics in the early post-war period could not rely on a solid cultural heritage such as that left by Fermi and Rossi in the fields of nuclear, subnuclear, and cosmic ray physics.
Solid state physics in Italy resulted from a polycentric process stimulated by local situations and contacts with foreign research groups,...
