(Short Course) Phase Transition Theory and Soft Matter

Title: Phase Transition Theory and Soft Matter

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

Time:

  Lecture 1  December 11, 2018 (Tuesday) 10:00-11:35 a.m.

  Lecture 2  December 11, 2018 (Tuesday) 14:30-16:55 p.m.

  Lecture 3  December 12, 2018 (Wednesday) 10:00-11:35 a.m.

  Lecture 4  December 12, 2018 (Wednesday) 14:30-16:55 p.m.

  Lecture 5  December 13, 2018 (Thursday) 10:00-11:35 a.m.

Location: 324 lecture hall, South China Institute of soft matter science and Technology (No. 2 building, North Science Park) 


Course Syllabus

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)

 

Introduction to the Speaker

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.


Announced by South China advanced Institute for Soft Matter Science and Technology


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