讲学主题：Phase Transition Theory and Soft Matter

主讲人：Prof. Dr. An-Chang Shi (McMaster University)

邀请人：软物质研究院

讲学时间：

第1讲  2018年12月11日（周二）上午10:00-11:35

第2讲  2018年12月11日（周二）下午14:30-16:55

第3讲  2018年12月12日（周三）上午10:00-11:35

第4讲  2018年12月12日（周三）下午14:30-16:55

第5讲  2018年12月13日（周四）上午10:00-11:35

*上午每讲分两节，下午每讲分三节，每节各45分钟，节间休息5分钟。

讲学地点：北区科技园2号楼324报告厅

此次讲学属于“校级海外名师讲授学分课程项目”，是《Advanced Polymer Physics》的对口课程，欢迎广大师生踊跃参加。 

华南软物质科学与技术高等研究院

2018年12月3日

讲学内容简介：

Soft matter is a class of diverse materials including polymers, colloids, liquid crystals, and biological materials. Understanding the phases and phase transitions of soft matter is an important and active research area in condensed matter physics. In this short course I will introduce the foundation of phase transition theory, followed by its application to soft matter. The following is a tentative schedule of the lectures:

* Soft matter and phase transitions (Introduction of soft matter; Common features of soft matter; Phases and phase transitions of soft matter)

* Review of thermodynamics and statistical mechanics (Introduction to thermodynamics & statistical mechanics; Thermodynamics and statistical mechanics of phase transitions; Ideal gas, Van der Waal theory, fluctuation-dissipation theorem, scattering functions)

* Simple model of phase transition: Ising model and lattice gas model (Introduction to Ising model and lattice gas model; Analytic solutions of 1D and 2D Ising model; Mean-field theory; Broken symmetry and long-range order)

* Landau theory of phase transition (Order parameter and Landau free energy functional; 2nd & 1st order phase transitions, multi-critical points, modulated phases)

* Physics of phase separation (Phase separation of binary mixtures: lattice model & mean-field theory; Phase separation of polymer blends: critical point, binodal and spinodal)

* Kinetics of 1st-order transition (Stable and metastable phases; Nucleation and growth; Minimum energy path as the most probably transition path)

* Polymer-polymer phase behavior (Polymers and their phases; Self-assembly of block copolymers; Self-consistent field theory (SCFT) of polymeric systems; Application of SCFT: Complex phases of block copolymers)

主讲人简介：

Prof. An-Chang Shi received a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1988. He then went to McMaster University in Canada as a Postdoctoral Fellow/Research Associate. In 1992 he became a Member of Research Stuff at Xerox Research Centre of Canada. In 1999 he joined the Department of Physics & Astronomy at McMaster University as an Associate Professor, and promoted to Professor in 2004. Prof. Shi is a world renowned soft matter theorist.  His research interests include theory of phases and phase transition of soft matter, self-assembly and morphology of block copolymers, statistical mechanics of conformation of macromolecules, and theory of bilayer membranes. He has published over 200 papers (~7000 citations) in peer-reviewed journals including PNAS, PRL, JACS, and given more than 50 invited talks in international conferences. He was elected as a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2010.