Overview

Over the last thirty years, the study of liquids containing polymers, surfactants, or colloidal particles has developed from a loose assembly of facts into a coherent discipline with substantial predictive power. These liquids expand our conception of what condensed matter can do. Such structured-fluid phenomena dominate the physical environment within living cells. This book teaches how to think of these fluids from a unified point of view, showing the far-reaching effects of thermal fluctuations in producing forces and motions. Keeping mathematics to a minimum, the book seeks the simplest explanations that account for the distinctive scaling properties of these fluids. An example is the growth of viscosity of a polymer solution as the cube of the molecular weight of the constituent polymers. Another is the hydrodynamic radius of a colloidal aggregate, which remains comparable to its geometrical radius even though the density of particles in the aggregate becomes arbitrarily small. The book aims for a simplicity, unity and depth not found in previous treatments. The text is supplemented by numerous figures, tables and problems to aid the student.

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9780198526889

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Reviews

Tom Witten has written a splendid introduction to the subject, with three strong themes indicated by the subtitle...The text is elegantly laid out and well complemented by illustrations Europhysics News Keeping mathematics to a minimum, the book seeks the simplest explanations that account for the distinctive scaling properties of these fluids ... The book aims for simplicity, unity and depth not found in previous treatments and includes numerous figures, tables and problems. It will therefore be an ideal textbook for teaching undergraduates in physical science how to understand soft matter, but will also be of interest to industrial scientists, who want to gain a broader understanding of soft matter systems. The DKI Literature Database on Polymers ... the book is very readable, and it can be easily adapted for a one-semester or a one-quarter course ... Structured Fluids belongs on one's shelf beside recent works by Paul Chaikin and Tom Lubensky, Jacob Israelachvili, and Ronald Larson. Science

`This is an interesting book written by one of the leading figures in the field. Tom Witten is one of the most original researchers in the field of complex fluids, and his breadth, curiosity, and enthusiasm are evidenced throughout the book...the lovely estimates and intuitive arguments are real gems and so rarely given. The examples and problems are delightful, and the book is real fun to read.' Dov Levine, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology `This is a beautiful book, one that will, I think, rapidly find a place in courses given in this kind of condensed matter physics.' David Weitz, Harvard University `This book is a unique contribution to the scientific literature in the physics and materials science of complex, soft materials... The covered set of topics is excellent.' Matthew Tirrell, University of California, Santa Barbara `This book fills in an important gap. Witten is one of the leaders in this field. This text will make a long-lasting book.' P.-G. de Gennes, Collège de France

Tom Witten has written a splendid introduction to the subject, with three strong themes indicated by the subtitle...The text is elegantly laid out and well complemented by illustrations Europhysics News Keeping mathematics to a minimum, the book seeks the simplest explanations that account for the distinctive scaling properties of these fluids ... The book aims for simplicity, unity and depth not found in previous treatments and includes numerous figures, tables and problems. It will therefore be an ideal textbook for teaching undergraduates in physical science how to understand soft matter, but will also be of interest to industrial scientists, who want to gain a broader understanding of soft matter systems. The DKI Literature Database on Polymers ... the book is very readable, and it can be easily adapted for a one-semester or a one-quarter course ... Structured Fluids belongs on one's shelf beside recent works by Paul Chaikin and Tom Lubensky, Jacob Israelachvili, and Ronald Larson. Science

Author Information

Thomas A. Witten was an assistant professor at the University of Michigan and a staff scientist at Exxon Research and Engineering before joining the University of Chicago in 1989 as a professor of physics.

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