Basic Concepts for Simple and Complex Liquids [Paperback]

Important graduate textbook in condensed matter physics and physical chemistry.Presenting a unified approach, this book focusses on the concepts and theoretical methods that are necessary for an understanding of the physics and chemistry of the fluid state. The authors do not attempt to cover the whole field in an encyclopedic manner. Instead, important ideas are presented in a concise and rigorous style, and illustrated with examples from both simple molecular liquids and more complex soft condensed matter systems such as polymers, colloids, and liquid crystals.Presenting a unified approach, this book focusses on the concepts and theoretical methods that are necessary for an understanding of the physics and chemistry of the fluid state. The authors do not attempt to cover the whole field in an encyclopedic manner. Instead, important ideas are presented in a concise and rigorous style, and illustrated with examples from both simple molecular liquids and more complex soft condensed matter systems such as polymers, colloids, and liquid crystals.Presenting a unified approach, this book focuses on the theoretical concepts and methods necessary for understanding the physics and chemistry of the fluid state. Important ideas are presented concisely and illustrated with examples from simple molecular liquids and more complex soft condensed matter systems such as polymers, colloids, and liquid crystals.1. An introduction to liquid matter; Part I. Thermodynamics, Structure and Fluctuations: 2. A reminder of thermodynamics; 3. Equilibrium fluctuations; Part II. Phase Transitions: 4. Mean field approaches; 5. Critical fluctuations and scaling; Part III. Interfaces and Inhomogeneous Fluids: 6. Macroscopic description of interfaces; 7. The density functional approach; 8. Curvature and fluctuations; Part IV. Dynamics: 9. Phenomenological description of transport processes; 10. Brownian motion, diffusion and the Langevin equation; 11. Response and correlation functions; 12. Slow rel“)