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PHY 625: Statistical Physics II
Course Information
Please note that exact details of the course can vary
Professor: Dr. Gerhard Muller
Semester: Spring in alternate years
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: PHY525 (readily waived by permission numbers).
Catalog Description: Statistical physics of soft condensed matter: colloids, polymers, gels, liquid crystals, amphiphiles, biological matter. Interactions, conformations, hierarchical structures, phase transitions, aggregation, self-assembly, kinetics, transport.
Course Goals & Outcomes
Upon completion, successful students will be able to:
- Understand important topics of statistical physics
- Further develop critical thinking and problem solving skills
- Conduct physics research on a better foundation
Course Description
This course meets 2 times per week for lecture.
Topics covered in this course include:
- Colloids
- Polymers
- Surfactants
- Liquid crystals
- Surfaces and interfaces
- Elasticity, viscosity, and viscoelasticity
- Diffusion and permeation
- Self-assembly
- Ionic soft matter
- Biological matter
- Microfluidics
Detailed topic outline: Here
Course syllabus for current semester: Spring 2019
Contact Information:
Dr. Gerhard Muller (gmuller@uri.edu)
LEC: (3 crs.) Equilibrium critical phenomena (critical exponents, scaling relations, multicritical phenomena). Exact solutions. Renormalization group theory and other approximate methods. Critical behavior of magnets, fluids, and surfaces. (Lec. 3) Pre: PHY 525 and 670.
