Soft Matter Physics

3 Credits

Introduction to the physics of soft materials at the undergraduate level, including polymers, colloids, and liquid crystals. Topics include polymer conformations and elasticity, colloidal interactions and self-assembly, liquid crystalline order, hydrodynamics of complex fluids. The course also provides an introduction to active matter and to soft matter in biological systems. The course integrates theoretical concepts with descriptions of experimental methods and provides an introduction to computational investigations of soft matter systems. Prerequisites: PHY 021 and MATH 023 Attribute/Distribution: NS, NW, Q