Overview

This book aims to cover a broad range of topics in statistical physics, including statistical mechanics (equilibrium and non-equilibrium), soft matter and fluid physics, for applications to biological phenomena at both cellular and macromolecular levels. It is intended to be a graduate level textbook, but can also be addressed to the interested senior level undergraduate. The book is written also for those involved in research on biological systems or soft matter based on physics, particularly on statistical physics. Typical statistical physics courses cover ideal gases (classical and quantum) and interacting units of simple structures. In contrast, even simple biological fluids are solutions of macromolecules, the structures of which are very complex. The goal of this book to fill this wide gap by providing appropriate content as well as by explaining the theoretical method that typifies good modeling, namely, the method of coarse-grained descriptions that extract the most salient features emerging at mesoscopic scales. The major topics covered in this book include thermodynamics, equilibrium statistical mechanics, soft matter physics of polymers and membranes, non-equilibrium statistical physics covering stochastic processes, transport phenomena and hydrodynamics. Generic methods and theories are described with detailed derivations, followed by applications and examples in biology. The book aims to help the readers build, systematically and coherently through basic principles, their own understanding of nonspecific concepts and theoretical methods, which they may be able to apply to a broader class of biological problems.

Full Product Details

Author:   Wokyung Sung
Publisher:   Springer Verlag, Singapore
Imprint:   Springer Verlag, Singapore
Edition:   1st ed. 2018
ISBN:  

9789811077807

ISBN 10:   9811077800
Pages:   440
Publication Date:   11 September 2018
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Not yet available  
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Table of Contents

1. Introduction : Biological Systems, and Physical ApproachesBring Physics to Life, Bring Life to Physics. Part A: Equilibrium Structures and Properties. 2. Basic Concepts of Relevant Thermodynamics. 2.1 The First Law and Thermodynamic Potentials. 2.2 The Second Law and Thermodynamic Variational Principles. 3. Basic Methods of Equilibrium Statistical Physics. 3.1 Boltzmann's Entropy and Probability, Microcanonical Ensemble Theory. 3.2 Canonical Ensemble Theory. 3.3 The Gibbs Canonical Ensemble. 3.4 Grand Canonical Ensemble Theory. 4. Statistical Mechanics of Fluids and Solutions. 4.1 Phase-space Description of Fluids. 4.2 Fluids of Non-interacting Particles. 4.3 Fluids of Interacting Particles. 4.4 Extension to Solutions: Coarse-grained Descriptions. 5. The Coarse-grained Descriptions for Biological Complexes. 6. Water and Weak Electrostatic Interactions. 6.1 Thermodynamic Properties of Water. 6.2 The Interactions in Water. 6.3 Screened Coulomb Interaction. 7. Law of Chemical Forces: Transitions, Reactions and Self-assembly. 7.1 Law of Mass Action (LMA). 7.2 Self-Assembly. 8. Lattice and Ising Models. 8.1 Adsorption and Aggregation of Molecules. 8.2 Binary Mixtures. 8.3 1-D Ising Model and Applications. 9. Response, Fluctuations, Correlations, and Scatterings. 9.1 Linear Responses and Fluctuations: Fluctuation-Response Theorem. 9.2 Scatterings, Fluctuations, and Structures of Matter. 10. Mesoscopic model for Polymers: Flexible Chains. 10.1 Random Walk Model for a Flexible Chain. 10.2 A Flexible Chain under External Fields and Confinements. 10.3 Effects of Segmental Interactions. 10.4 Scaling Theory. 11. Mesoscopic model for Polymers: Semi-flexible Chain Model and Polyelectrolytes. 11.1 Worm-like chain model. 11.2 Fluctuations in nearly straight semi-flexible chains and the force-extension relation. 11.3 Polyelecrolytes. 12. Membranes and Elastic Surfaces. 12.1 Membrane Self-assembly and Transition. 12.2 Mesoscopic Model for Elastic Energies and Shapes. 12.3 Effects of Thermal Undulations. Part B: Non-equilibrium Phenomena. 13.Brownian Motions. 13.1 Brownian Motion/Diffusion Equation Theory. 13.2 Diffusive Transport in Cells. 13.3 Brownian Motion/Langevin Equation Theory. 14. Stochastic Processes, Markov Chains and Master Equations. 14.1 Markov Processes. 14.2 Master Equation. 15. Theory of Markov Processes & The Fokker-Planck Equations. 15.1 Fokker-Planck Equation (FPE). 15.2 The Langevin and Fokker-Planck Equations from Phenomenology and Effective Hamiltonian. 15.3 Solutions of Fokker-Planck Equations, Transition Probabilities and Correlation Functions. 16. The Mean-First Passage Times and Barrier Crossing Rates. 16.1 First Passage Time and Applications. 16.2 Rate Theory: Flux-over Population Method. 17. Dynamic Linear Responses and Time Correlation Functions. 17.1 Time-dependent Linear Response Theory. 17.2 Applications of the Fluctuation-dissipation Theorem. 18. Noise-induced Resonances: Stochastic Resonance and Resonant Activation, and Stochastic Ratchet. 18.1 Stochastic Resonance. 18.2 Resonant Activation (RA) and Stochastic Ratchet. 18.3 Stochastic ratchet. 19. Transport Phenomena and Fluid Dynamics. 19.1 Hydrodynamic Transport Equations. 19.2 Dynamics of Viscous Flow. 20. Dynamics of Polymers and Membranes in Fluids. 20.1 Dynamics of Flexible Polymers. 20.2 Dynamics of a Semiflexible Chain. 20.3 Dynamics of Membrane Undulation. 20.4 A Unified View. 21. Epilogue.

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Author Information

Wokyung Sung is Professor Emeritus at Pohang University of Science & Technology (POSTECH), where he taught and researched in the fields of statistical physics and biological physics for about 30 years. He obtained his Bachelor of Science at Seoul National University and PhD at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He has been working mostly on a variety of biological matter and processes at the mesoscopic level, using statistical physics of soft matter and stochastic phenomena. In particular, he pioneered the theory of polymer translocation through membranes, engendering a whole new field in biological or polymer physics. He is a member of the Journal of Biological Physics editorial board and an Editor-in-Chief in the period 2007-2009. For his seminal contributions to science and in particular to statistical/biological physics, Prof. Sung was awarded a Medal of Science and Technology bestowed by the Korean Government in 2010. He also served as a director of Center for Theoretical Physics at POSTECH, and the Distinguished Research Fellow at Center for Self-Assembly and Complexity, Institute of Basic Science, in Pohang. Professor Sung was a visiting a scientist and professor at Oxford University, the Julich Research Center, University of Pennsylvania, and Brown University.

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