This is the first monograph devoted to investigation of the most complex physical processes of soft systems, including a wide class of solutions. It blends modern theoretical understanding and experimental results, proposing new methods and models for the description of several soft systems.

This is the first monograph devoted to investigation of the most complex physical processes of soft systems, including a wide class of solutions. It blends modern theoretical understanding and experimental results, proposing new methods and models for the description of several soft systems.

Soft matter (polymers, colloids, surfactants, liquid crystals) are an important class of materials for modern and future technologies. They are complex materials that behave neither like a fluid nor a solid. This book describes the characteristics of such materials and how we can understand such characteristics in the language of physics.

Introduction. Role of modeling in soft matter physics / D. Frenkel -- 1. Applications of density functional theory in soft condensed matter / H. Lowen -- 2. Polymer phase separation / M. Muller -- 3. Self-consistent field theory of block copolymers / F. Qiu, A.-C. Shi and Y. Yang -- 4. Dynamic self-consistent field theories for polymer blends and block copolymers / T. Kawakatsu -- 5. Molecular dynamics in crystallization of helical polymers : crystal ordering and chirality selection / T. Yamamoto -- 6. Interplay of liquid-liquid demixing and polymer crystallization / W. Hu -- 7. Elucidation of single molecular observation of a giant DNA / C.-Y. Shew and K. Yoshikawa -- 8. Theoretical modeling of hydrogen bonding in macro-molecular solutions : the combination of quantum mechanics and molecular mechanics / J. Ma, N. Jiang and H. Li -- 9. Exotic electrostatics : unusual features of electrostatic interactions between macroions / A. Naji ... [et al.] -- 10. Computer modeling of liquid crystals / R. Hashim -- 11. Drop dynamics in complex fluids / J. J. Feng ... [et al.]

This handbook will provide the reader with a profound introduction to the key subjects comprising the relatively new topic of Soft Condensed Matter. It will provide students and researchers with an authoritative overview of the field, identify key principles at play, and the most prominent ways of further development.

This text offers an introduction to the properties and behaviour of soft matter. It begins with a treatment of the underlying principles, then discusses how the properties of certain substances and systems are treated within this framework.