Editing Soft matter (section)

{{Short description|Subfield of condensed matter physics}}
{{For|the journal|Soft Matter (journal)}}
{{Condensed matter physics}}
'''Soft matter''' or '''soft condensed matter''' is a type of [[matter]] that can be deformed or structurally altered by thermal or mechanical stress which is of similar magnitude to [[thermal fluctuations]].

The science of soft matter is a subfield of [[condensed matter physics]]. Soft materials include [[Liquid|liquids]], [[Colloid|colloids]], [[Polymer|polymers]], [[Foam|foams]], [[Gel|gels]], [[Granular material|granular materials]], [[Liquid crystal|liquid crystals]], [[flesh]], and a number of [[Biomaterial|biomaterials]]. These materials share an important common feature in that predominant physical behaviors occur at an [[energy]] scale comparable with [[room temperature]] [[thermal energy]] (of order of [[KT (energy)|kT]]), and that [[entropy]] is considered the dominant factor.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |url=https://link.springer.com/10.1007/b97416 |title=Soft Matter Physics: An Introduction |date=2003 |publisher=Springer New York |isbn=978-0-387-95267-3 |editor-last=Kleman |editor-first=Maurice |location=New York, NY |language=en |doi=10.1007/b97416 |editor-last2=Lavrentovich |editor-first2=Oleg D.}}</ref> At these temperatures, [[quantum]] aspects are generally unimportant. When soft materials interact favorably with surfaces, they become squashed without an external compressive force.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Carroll |first1=Gregory T. |last2=Jongejan |first2=Mahthild G. M. |last3=Pijper |first3=Dirk |last4=Feringa |first4=Ben L. |date=2010 |title=Spontaneous generation and patterning of chiral polymeric surface toroids |url=http://xlink.rsc.org/?DOI=c0sc00159g |journal=Chemical Science |language=en |volume=1 |issue=4 |pages=469 |doi=10.1039/c0sc00159g |s2cid=96957407 |issn=2041-6520}}</ref>

[[Pierre-Gilles de Gennes]], who has been called the "founding father of soft matter,"<ref>{{Cite journal |date=2005 |title=Soft matter: more than words |url=http://xlink.rsc.org/?DOI=b419223k |journal=Soft Matter |language=en |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=16 |doi=10.1039/b419223k |pmid=32521835 |bibcode=2005SMat....1...16. |issn=1744-683X}}</ref> received the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] in 1991 for discovering that methods developed for studying [[Phase transition|order phenomena]] in simple systems can be generalized to the more complex cases found in soft matter, in particular, to the behaviors of [[Liquid crystal|liquid crystals]] and [[Polymer|polymers]].<ref>The Nobel Prize in Physics 1991. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2023. Mon. 13 Feb 2023. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1991/summary/ </ref>