Soft and Fragile Matter is a great compilation of essays, put together by editors Cates and Evans, into a book that is useful for every serious student of soft matter physics. The bibliography at the end of each chapter outlines essential reading for the corresponding branch of soft matter, and the text on each chapter provides a basic and yet erudite discussion on some of the essential features of colloids, polymers, surfactants, granular matter and glasses. Surprisingly the book does not include a chapter on liquid crystals.
A summary of what these essays contain:
Poon opens the book with "A day in the life of a hard-sphere suspension" outlining concepts of statistical mechanics and "dynamics, metastability and flow" required to appreciate their behavior.
David Pine introduces static and dynamic light scattering as well as basic rheology in context of behavior of glass forming gels and worm like miscelles as examples.
Alexei Khokhlov's chapter on polymer physics starts by discussing models for describing chain dimensions, follows up with swelling and collapse of polymer chains in solvents, and then discusses statics of polyelectrolytes and block polymers. Khokhlov is author of Statistical Physics of Macromolecules and Gaint Molecules: both of which are highly recommended texts for polymer physicists.
McLeish starts by explaining what rheology is, and how fluids and solids respond to stress. Then he talks about the theoretical aspects of Rouse model and reptation, and discusses experimental rheology of both linear and branched polymers.
Daan Frenkel's chapter on introduction to colloidal systems is a thirty piece masterpiece that presents most of the important concepts of colloidal phenomenon. The chapter starts by discussing why particles are brownian, talks about forces between particles and then talks about computer simulations of colloids. Phase behavior, metastability and crystallization as well as hydrodynamics of colloids are introduced to the reader.
Kurt Kremer summarizes the simulation strategies relevant to soft matter, presenting a brief on Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics. His book on the topic is must have, must read for simulators in the field.
Roux delves into the intricate phases and patterns formed by surfactants , both under static and dynamic conditions. Bray continues the discussion by providing insight into the coarsening dynamics, giving us a glimpse of mechanism and kinetics of transformation of one phase into another (disorder to order, and spinodal decomposition). Mukamel then tackles the phase behavior in nonequilibrium systems, an area which will see a lot of theoretical and experimental investigation in future.Symmetry breaking and collective phenomenon are becoming most investigated fields of study, and the mathematics involved is basis for understanding pattern formation and behavior across disciplines as diverse as population ecology, astronomy and oscillatory chemical reactions.
Kob takes us into the metastable, amorphous realm of supercooled liquids and glasses. He discusses strong and fragile glasses, Mode Coupling Theory as well as relaxation in supercooled systems. Bouchaud takes this discussion further by talking about aging in glassy systems.
Lekkerkerker takes off from where Frenkel left and talks about colloids in another very insightful chapter, where both hard sphere crystallization and impact of mixing on phase behavior of colloids blended with each other or polymers is discussed. Paul Chaikin discusses hydrodynamics and thermodynamics of hard spheres presenting important concepts regarding sedimentation and packing problem in solid spheres. His book with Lubensky is an erudite and mathematically intensive treatise on soft condensed matter.
Lastly, Nagel and Cates discuss the physics of granular materials, one of the least understood realm of soft matter. While Nagel describes experiments with little perturbation aimed at looking at statics of these materials, Cates summarizes the understanding of jamming and stress transmission in granular media.
With such richness and complexity of topics, this book deserves to be on the bookshelf of every soft matter enthusiast.
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