🔬 Category

cond-mat.mtrl-sci

3992 papers

Condensed matter physics and materials science form a dynamic partnership, exploring how the collective behavior of atoms gives rise to the unique properties of solids and liquids. This field bridges the gap between fundamental quantum mechanics and the practical engineering of everything from flexible electronics to superconductors, turning abstract theories into tangible innovations that shape our daily lives.

At Gist.Science, we process every new preprint in this category directly from arXiv to make these complex discoveries accessible to everyone. Our team generates both plain-language overviews and detailed technical summaries for each paper, ensuring that researchers, students, and curious minds alike can grasp the latest breakthroughs without getting lost in dense jargon.

Below are the latest papers in condensed matter and materials science, organized by their most recent publication dates.

🔬 materials science

Efficient nonequilibrium electron dynamics from first-principles: leveraging Koopmans spectral functionals and Wannier localization

This paper presents an efficient first-principles framework combining Koopmans-compliant functionals and Wannier localization to simulate nonequilibrium electron dynamics in extended systems, enabling accurate and computationally tractable *ab-initio* investigations of excitonic effects in nonlinear optical phenomena like high-harmonic generation.

Giovanni Cistaro, Miguel Sá, Davide Sangalli, Antonio Picón, Nicola Colonna2026-08-18
🔬 materials science

Dimensionality Mismatch Enables Decoupled Heat and Charge Transport

This paper demonstrates that dimensionality mismatch in quasi-one-dimensional materials, such as Sn2_2S3_3 and SbTeI, enables the spatial decoupling of heat and charge transport by suppressing transverse lattice thermal conductivity while maintaining efficient interchain hole transport, resulting in a high thermoelectric figure of merit (zT≈2.1zT \approx 2.1) for SbTeI.

Luman Shang, Shuming Zeng, Chenhan Liu, Yu Wu2026-08-18
🔬 materials science

Extracting a nitrile-centered, ether-assisted motif hierarchy for lithium-battery electrolyte design from billion-scale molecular space

By screening nearly one billion molecular structures, this study establishes a quantitative, interpretable motif hierarchy where nitrile groups serve as the primary lithium-solvation motif assisted by ethers under specific constraints, enabling the generation of high-performing, fluorinated electrolyte candidates that maintain stable solvation shells without displacing ethylene carbonate.

Yifeng Xia, Guanghui Wang, Sining Wang, Wenting Chen, Zheng Cheng, Jinzhe Zeng, Qiangqiang Gu2026-08-18
🔬 materials science

Scientific applications of quantum computing: challenges and opportunities

This paper argues that while quantum computing offers a transformative paradigm for simulating molecules and materials by directly handling electronic correlation and complex energy landscapes, its true scientific value depends not merely on qubit scaling but on achieving demonstrable reductions in predictive uncertainty through disciplined integration with classical workflows across various stages of hardware development.

Bruno Camino, C. Richard A. Catlow, John Buckeridge, Alin M. Elena, Vladimir V. Gusev, Sarah Harris, Thomas W. Keal, Gle (…)2026-08-18
🔬 materials science

Machine Learning-Accelerated Band-Edge Engineering of Pnictogen Chalcohalide Solid Solutions for Solar Energy Technologies

This study employs machine learning combined with first-principles calculations to map the tunable band-edge positions of pnictogen chalcohalide solid solutions across their full compositional range and surface terminations, identifying specific formulations suitable for various solar energy applications and revealing that facet selection is a critical design parameter comparable to chemical substitution.

Cibrán López, David Rovira, Edgardo Saucedo, Claudio Cazorla2026-08-18
🔬 mesoscale physics

Reduced vortex descriptors linking polycrystallinity in magnetic nanoparticles with polarized magnetic small-angle neutron scattering

This study demonstrates that analytical vortex models can effectively reduce polarized magnetic small-angle neutron scattering data from polycrystalline iron oxide nanoflowers to a small set of texture descriptors, revealing that intergrain exchange coupling and anisotropy-axis coherence distinctly govern the radial and orientational characteristics of the magnetic vortex states, respectively.

M. P. Adams, J. Leliaert, A. Michels, E. M. Jefremovas2026-08-18
🔬 materials science

Standard model of electromagnetism and chirality in crystals

This paper presents a general, quantitative theory of electromagnetism and chirality in crystals that uses symmetry principles and a formal analogy between space and time inversions to establish comprehensive classifications of five types of multipole polarizations and five types of chirality, thereby extending concepts like ferroelectricity and enantiomorphism to higher-rank orders in quantum materials.

R. Winkler, U. Zülicke2026-08-17
🔬 materials science

Probing out-of-distribution generalization in machine learning for materials

This study reveals that common heuristic evaluations in materials science machine learning often overestimate generalizability and the benefits of neural scaling because they primarily test interpolation within the training domain rather than true out-of-distribution extrapolation, where increasing data or model size yields diminishing or adverse returns.

Kangming Li, Andre Niyongabo Rubungo, Xiangyun Lei, Daniel Persaud, Kamal Choudhary, Brian DeCost, Adji Bousso Dieng, Ja (…)2026-08-17