Nonequilibrium Phenomena in Confined Soft Matter

This is the first of a two-volume textbook on the modern statistical theory of nonequilibrium processes. The general method of nonequilibrium ensembles is used to describe kinetic processes in classical and quantum systems.

This is the first of a two-volume textbook on the modern statistical theory of nonequilibrium processes. The general method of nonequilibrium ensembles is used to describe kinetic processes in classical and quantum systems.

Soft Matter science is concerned with soft materials such as polymers, colloids, liquid crystals, and foams, and has emerged as a rich interdisciplinary field over the last 30 years. Drawing on physics, chemistry, mathematics and engineering, soft matter links fundamental scientific ideas to everyday phenomena. One such example is 'polymers', encountered in plastic materials and melted cheese, which illustrate how 'sliminess' emerges from the flow and form of giant molecules.

This book focuses on the assembly, organization and resultant collective dynamics of soft matter systems maintained away from equilibrium by an energy flux. Living matter is the ultimate example of such systems, which are comprised of different constituents on very different scales (ions, nucleic acids, proteins, cells).