This volume contains a collection of review articles on the current topics of non-equilibrium soft matter physics written by leading experts in the field. It deals with topics such as evaporation, structual rheology, and active matter.
Soft matter is a concept which covers polymers, liquid crystals, colloids, amphiphilic molecules, glasses, granular and biological materials. One of the fundamental characteristic features of soft matter is that it exhibits various mesoscopic structures originating from a large number of internal degrees of freedom of each molecule. Due to such intermediate structures, soft matter can easily be brought into non-equilibrium states and cause non-linear responses by imposing external fields such as an electric field, a mechanical stress or a shear flow. Volume 4 of the series in Soft Condensed Matter focuses on the non-linear and non-equilibrium properties of soft matter. It contains a collection of review articles on the current topics of non-equilibrium soft matter physics written by leading experts in the field. The topics dealt with in this volume includes rheology of polymers and liquid crystals, dynamical properties of Langmuir monolayers at the air/water interface, hydrodynamics of membranes and twisted filaments as well as dynamics of deformable self-propelled particles and migration of biological cells. This book serves both as an introduction to students as well as a useful reference to researchers.
The term active fluids refers to motions that are created by transforming energy from the surroundings into directed motion. There are many examples, both natural and synthetic, including individual swimming bacteria or motile cells, drops and bubbles that move owing to surface stresses (so-called Marangoni motions), and chemical- or optical-driven colloids. Investigations into active fluids provide new insights into non-equilibrium systems, have the potential for novel applications, and open new directions in physics, chemistry, biology and engineering. This book provides an expert introduction to active fluids systems, covering simple to complex environments. It explains the interplay of chemical processes and hydrodynamics, including the roles of mechanical and rheological properties across active fluids, with reference to experiments, theory, and simulations. These concepts are discussed for a variety of scenarios, such as the trajectories of microswimmers, cell crawling and fluid stirring, and apply to collective behaviours of dense suspensions and active gels. Emerging avenues of research are highlighted, ranging from the role of active processes for biological functions to programmable active materials, showcasing the exciting potential of this rapidly-evolving research field.
Classic monograph treats irreversible processes and phenomena of thermodynamics: non-equilibrium thermodynamics. Covers statistical foundations and applications with chapters on fluctuation theory, theory of stochastic processes, kinetic theory of gases, more.
The purpose of this book is to encourage the use of non-equilibrium thermodynamics to describe transport in complex, heterogeneous media. With large coupling effects between the transport of heat, mass, charge and chemical reactions at surfaces, it is important to know how one should properly integrate across systems where different phases are in contact. No other book gives a prescription of how to set up flux equations for transports across heterogeneous systems.The authors apply the thermodynamic description in terms of excess densities, developed by Gibbs for equilibrium, to non-equilibrium systems. The treatment is restricted to transport into and through the surface. Using local equilibrium together with the balance equations for the surface, expressions for the excess entropy production of the surface and of the contact line are derived. Many examples are given to illustrate how the theory can be applied to coupled transport of mass, heat, charge and chemical reactions; in phase transitions, at electrode surfaces and in fuel cells. Molecular simulations and analytical studies are used to add insight.
This book aims to cover a broad range of topics in statistical physics, including statistical mechanics (equilibrium and non-equilibrium), soft matter and fluid physics, for applications to biological phenomena at both cellular and macromolecular levels. It is intended to be a graduate level textbook, but can also be addressed to the interested senior level undergraduate. The book is written also for those involved in research on biological systems or soft matter based on physics, particularly on statistical physics. Typical statistical physics courses cover ideal gases (classical and quantum) and interacting units of simple structures. In contrast, even simple biological fluids are solutions of macromolecules, the structures of which are very complex. The goal of this book to fill this wide gap by providing appropriate content as well as by explaining the theoretical method that typifies good modeling, namely, the method of coarse-grained descriptions that extract the most salient features emerging at mesoscopic scales. The major topics covered in this book include thermodynamics, equilibrium statistical mechanics, soft matter physics of polymers and membranes, non-equilibrium statistical physics covering stochastic processes, transport phenomena and hydrodynamics. Generic methods and theories are described with detailed derivations, followed by applications and examples in biology. The book aims to help the readers build, systematically and coherently through basic principles, their own understanding of nonspecific concepts and theoretical methods, which they may be able to apply to a broader class of biological problems.
This book deals with those properties of non-equilibrium soft matter that deviate greatly from the bulk properties as a result of nanoscale confinement.The ultimate physical origin of these confinement effects is not yet fully understood. At the state of the art, the discussion on confinement effects focuses on equilibrium properties, finite size effects and interfacial interactions. However this is a limited vision which does not fully capture the peculiar behaviour of soft matter under confinement and some exotic phenomena that are displayed. This volume will be organized in the following three main themes. Equilibration and physical aging: treating non-equilibrium via the formal methodology of statistical physics in bulk, we analyse physical origin of the non-equilibrium character of thin polymer. We then focus on the impact of nanoconfinement on the equilibration of glasses of soft matter (a process of tremendous technological interest, commonly known as physical aging), comparing the latest trends of polymers in experiments, simulations with those of low-molecular weight glass formers. Irreversible adsorption: the formation of stable adsorbed layers occurs at timescales much larger than the time necessary to equilibrate soft matter in bulk. Recent experimental evidence show a strong correlation between the behaviour of polymers under confinement and the presence of a layer irreversibly adsorbed onto the substrate. This correlation hints at the possibility to tailor the properties of ultrathin films by controlling the adsorption kinetics. The book reports physical aspects of irreversible chain adsorption, such as the dynamics, structure, morphology, and crystallization of adsorbed layers. Glass transition and material properties: this section of the book focuses on the spread of absolute values in materials properties of confined systems, when measured by different experimental and computation techniques and a new method to quantify the effects of confinement in thin films and nanocomposites independently on the investigation procedure will be presented.
Maximum Dissipation: Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics and its Geometric Structure explores the thermodynamics of non-equilibrium processes in materials. The book develops a general technique created in order to construct nonlinear evolution equations describing non-equilibrium processes, while also developing a geometric context for non-equilibrium thermodynamics. Solid materials are the main focus in this volume, but the construction is shown to also apply to fluids. This volume also: • Explains the theory behind thermodynamically-consistent construction of non-linear evolution equations for non-equilibrium processes • Provides a geometric setting for non-equilibrium thermodynamics through several standard models, which are defined as maximum dissipation processes • Emphasizes applications to the time-dependent modeling of soft biological tissue Maximum Dissipation: Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics and its Geometric Structure will be valuable for researchers, engineers and graduate students in non-equilibrium thermodynamics and the mathematical modeling of material behavior.