Physical metallurgy is one of the two main branches of the scientific approach to metallurgy, which considers in a systematic way the physical properties of metals and alloys.
It is basically the fundamentals and applications of the theory of phase transformations in metal and alloys.
[1] While chemical metallurgy involves the domain of reduction/oxidation of metals, physical metallurgy deals mainly with mechanical and magnetic/electric/thermal properties of metals – as described by solid-state physics.