The Advances in Chemical Physics series provides the chemical physics and physical chemistry fields with a forum for critical, authoritative evaluations of advances in every area of the discipline. Filled with cutting-edge research reported in a cohesive manner not found elsewhere in the literature, each volume of the Advances in Chemical Physics series serves as the perfect supplement to any advanced graduate class devoted to the study of chemical physics.

It is difficult to imagine how our highly evolved technological society would function, or how life would even exist on our planet, if polymers did not exist. The intensive study of polymeric systems, which has been under way for several decades, has recently yielded new insights into the properties of assemblies of these complex molecules and the physical principles that govern their behavior. These developments have included new concepts to describe aspects of the many body behavior in these systems, microscopic analyses that bring our understanding of these systems much closer to our understanding of simple liquids and solids, and the discovery of novel chemistry that these molecules can catalyze. This special topic volume of Advances in Chemical Physics surveys a number of these recent accomplishments. Supplemented with more than 250 illustrations, it provides a significant, up-to-date selection of papers by inter-nationally recognized researchers. Topics include: * Theory of Polyelectrolyte Solutions * Star Polymers: Experiment, Theory, and Simulation * Tethered Polymer Layers * Living Polymers * Transport and Kinetics in Electroactive Polymers Self-contained, authoritative, and timely, Polymeric Systems makes the cutting edge of polymer research available to scientists in every branch of chemical physics. Contributors to POLYMERIC SYSTEMS JEAN-LOUIS BARRAT, Département de Physique des Matériaux, Université Claude Bernard-Lyon l, France A. BAUMGÄRTNER, Institut für Festkörperforschung, Germany M. A. CARIGNANO, Department of Chemistry, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana LEWIS J. FETTERS, Corporate Research Science Laboratories, Exxon Research and Engineering Company, Annandale, New Jersey SANDRA C. GREER, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Maryland at College Park GARY S. GREST, Corporate Research Science Laboratories, Exxon Research and Engineering Company, Annandale, New Jersey JOHN S. HUANG, Corporate Research Science Laboratories, Exxon Research and Engineering Company, Annandale, New Jersey JEAN-FRANÇOIS JOANNY, Institut Charles Sadron, France MICHAEL E. G. LYONS, Electroactive Polymer Research Group, Physical Chemistry Laboratory, University of Dublin, Ireland M. MUTHUKUMAR, Department of Polymer Science, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts DIETER RICHTER, Institut für Festkörperforschung, Germany I. SZLEIFER, Department of Chemistry, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana

The Advances in Chemical Physics series provides the chemical physics field with a forum for critical, authoritative evaluations of advances in every area of the discipline. This volume explores the following topics: Thermodynamic Perturbation Theory for Associating Molecules Path Integrals and Effective Potentials in the Study of Monatomic Fluids at Equilibrium Sponteneous Symmetry Breaking in Matter Induced by Degeneracies and Pseudogeneracies Mean-Field Electrostatics Beyond the Point-Charge Description First Passage Processes in Cellular Biology Theoretical Modeling of Vibrational Spectra and Proton Tunneling in Hydroen-Bonded Systems

The Advances in Chemical Physics series provides the chemical physics and physical chemistry fields with a forum for critical, authoritative evaluations of advances in every area of the discipline. Filled with cutting-edge research reported in a cohesive manner not found elsewhere in the literature, each volume of the Advances in Chemical Physics series serves as the perfect supplement to any advanced graduate class devoted to the study of chemical physics.

The Advances in Chemical Physics series provides the chemical physics and physical chemistry fields with a forum for critical, authoritative evaluations of advances in every area of the discipline. Filled with cutting-edge research reported in a cohesive manner not found elsewhere in the literature, each volume of the Advances in Chemical Physics series serves as the perfect supplement to any advanced graduate class devoted to the study of chemical physics.

The Advances in Chemical Physics series provides the chemical physics and physical chemistry fields with a forum for critical, authoritative evaluations of advances in every area of the discipline. Filled with cutting-edge research reported in a cohesive manner not found elsewhere in the literature, each volume of the Advances in Chemical Physics series serves as the perfect supplement to any advanced graduate class devoted to the study of chemical physics.

THIS VOLUME, LIKE THOSE PRIOR TO IT, FEATURES CHAPTERS BY EXPERTS IN VARIOUS FIELDS OF COMPUTATIONAL CHEMISTRY. Volume 23 COVERS LINEAR SCALING METHODS FOR QUANTUM CHEMISTRY, VARIATIONAL TRANSITION STATE THEORY, COARSE GRAIN MODELING OF POLYMERS, SUPPORT VECTOR MACHINES, CONICAL INTERSECTIONS, ANALYSIS OF INFORMATION CONTENT USING SHANNON ENTROPY, AND HISTORICAL INSIGHTS INTO HOW COMPUTING EVOLVED IN THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY. FROM REVIEWS OF THE SERIES "Reviews in Computational Chemistry remains the most valuable reference to methods and techniques in computational chemistry." —JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR GRAPHICS AND MODELLING "One cannot generally do better than to try to find an appropriate article in the highly successful Reviews in Computational Chemistry. The basic philosophy of the editors seems to be to help the authors produce chapters that are complete, accurate, clear, and accessible to experimentalists (in particular) and other nonspecialists (in general)." —JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY