Colloquium: Acoustical analogs of condensed-matter problems

As a result of advances in experimental and theoretical physics, many inter esting problems have arisen in condense d-matter physics, typically as a re sult of the quantum-mechanical nature of a system. Areas of interest includ e Anderson localization, universal conductance fluctuations, normal electro n persistent currents. and the properties of quasicrystals. Understanding s uch systems is challenging because of complications arising from the large number of particles involved, intractable symmetries, the presence of time- dependent or nonlinear terms in the Schrodinger equation, etc. Some progres s has been made by studying large scale classical analog experiments which may accurately model the salient quantum-mechanical features of a condensed -matter system. This paper describes research with a number of acoustical s ystems which have addressed contemporary problems in condensed-matter physi cs.