Institution: Edinburgh

Assessment:  Course work 50% / Exam 50%

Course Summary

Soft Condensed Matter Physics studies complex fluids in which intermediate level structures with length scale between small molecules and the macroscopic world exist: colloidal particles, polymers, and aggregates spontaneously formed by soap-like (surfactant) molecules. This course emphasises the generic features of these systems (most importantly, Brownian motion), and develops simple models to account for their behaviour. It will also look at how the principle of soft matter physics can give insight into biological problems.