Eur. Phys. J. H 39, 3–36 (2014)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjh/e2013-40043-5

Oral History Interview

The beginnings of theoretical condensed matter physics in Rome: a personal remembrance^*

¹ Physics Department, Università di Roma “Sapienza”, P.le A. Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy
² Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Boltzmannstrasse 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany

^a e-mail: carlo.dicastro@roma1.infn.it
^b e-mail: luisa.bonolis@roma1.infn.it, lbonolis@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de

Received: 20 November 2013
Received in final form: 29 November 2013
Published online: 12 February 2014

Abstract

This oral history interview provides a personal view on how theoretical condensed matter physics developed in Rome starting in the sixties of the last century. It then follows along the lines of research pursued by the interviewee up to the date of the interview, in March 2006. The topics considered range from the phenomenology of superfluid helium and superconductors, critical phenomena and renormalisation group approach, quantum fluids to strongly correlated electron systems and high temperature superconductors. Within these topics, fundamental problems of condensed matter physics are touched upon, such as the microscopic derivation of scaling, the metal-insulator transition and the interaction effects on disordered electron systems beyond the Anderson localisation, and the existence of heterogeneous states in cuprates.