This book offers a didactic and a self-contained treatment of the physics of liquid and flowing matter with a statistical mechanics approach. Experimental and theoretical methods that were developed to study fluids are now frequently applied to a number of more complex systems generically referred to as soft matter. As for simple liquids, also for complex fluids it is important to understand how their macroscopic behavior is determined by the interactions between the component units. Moreover, in recent years new and relevant insights have emerged from the study of anomalous phases and metastable states of matter. In addition to the traditional topics concerning fluids in normal conditions, the authors of this book discuss recent developments in the field of disordered systems in condensed and soft matter. In particular they emphasize computer simulation techniques that are used in the study of soft matter and the theoriesand study of slow glassy dynamics. For these reasons the book includes a specific chapter about metastability, supercooled liquids and glass transition.
The book is written for graduate students and active researchers in the field.

Expounds the structural and dynamical properties of all kinds of flowing systems Emphasizes computer simulation techniques and the recent theoretical advances in the study of slow glassy dynamics Includes hot topics such as the structure of water, metastability, glass transition and the supercritical state

Autorentext

Paola Gallo is Professor of Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics at the University Roma Tre, Rome, Italy. She graduated in Physics at the University of Rome "La Sapienza" in Italy and received her Ph.D. degree in Condensed Matter Physics from the University of L'Aquila, Italy. From 1994 to 1996 she worked in the United States at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Prof. Sow-Hsin Chen. Since then her research has been focused on simulations of supercooled liquids and metastable water. Over her career she has contributed to characterizing the glassy behavior of supercooled water and the dynamics of water in confinement and in solutions. Currently, her research group focuses on the structure, dynamics, and thermodynamics of solutions for cryopreservation, of doped ice, and of water under extreme conditions: supercooled, superheated, in hydrophilic and hydrophobic confinement and in electrolyte and amphiphilic solutions.Mauro Rovere is currently Professor of Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics at the University Roma Tre. He has worked on a wide range of topics in condensed matter physics with theoretical methods. He carried on a research activity on the structural properties of molten salts and liquid metals at the Physics Department of Trieste and ICTP in collaboration with Prof. M. P. Tosi. He collaborated with Prof. K. Binder and his group supported by a Von Humboldt research fellowship to study finite size scaling in the computer simulation of critical phenomena in simple liquids. After obtaining his position at the Roma Tre University he started his activity on the physics of water. In particular now his research is focused on the properties of water under extreme conditions, supercooled water, supercritical water, water in confinement, aqueous solutions of salts with the use of computer simulation methods.

Inhalt

Chapter 1: An introduction to the liquid state of matter.- Chapter 2: Thermodynamics and statistical mechanics of fluid states.- Chapter 3: Microscopic forces and structure of Liquids.- Chapter 4: Theoretical studies of the structure of Liquids.-Chapter 5: Methods of computer simulation.- Chapter 6: Dynamical correlation functions and linear response theory for fluids.- Chapter 7: Dynamics of liquids.- Chapter 8: Supercooled liquids, Glass transition and Mode Coupling Theory.- Chapter 9: Supercooled Water.