Strongly correlated electron systems—reports on the progress of the field

The Editorial Board for Reports on Progress in Physics (ROPP) is delighted to announce the publication of a special, focused, issue on ‘strongly correlated electron systems’ or ‘SCES’ containing mini review articles or ‘Report on Progress’ aimed at collectively surveying the status of the field. Strongly correlated electron matter is seen in over 40 classes of materials (including the cuprate and Fe-based high temperature superconductors, organic superconductors, heavy fermions, transition-metal di-chalcogenides, and general quantum critical materials) as pseudogap, electronic stripe, electronic nematic, heavy electron, temperature dependent or novel charge density wave behavior, or any non-Fermi liquid behavior. The understanding of the origin of these emergent collective behaviors represents perhaps the greatest unsolved problem in physics today. It is also widely accepted that finding the solutions to these problems is essential if definitive progress is to be made in the predictive design of functional SCES, such as high-temperature superconductors. This special issue examines the foundations, present status, and future prospects of the field of SCES at over 60 years old. In light of the recent remarkable progress of this field in materials growth, measurement, theory, computation, and our general understanding, this is an opportune time to bring the world’s experts together to remind us of the foundations, elucidate where we are now, and make bold and specific recommendations for the future to aid our progress in solving this complex and important question. We have collected a significant number manuscripts by many of the leading researchers in this area, in the hope that this special issue will provide a timely and valuable resource for the many researches now working in this field, and hope to entice more scientists into this intriguing area of research. L H Greene et al