Collective Behaviour in Soft Matter
Colloids, glasses, and gels are "soft matter" -- in many cases, their properties lie somewhere between liquids and solids. We aim to describe these materials using theory and computer simulation, concentrating on how the collective behaviour of many microscopic particles can give have unusual macroscopic consequences. Examples include the spontaneous self-assembly of nano-scale structures and the formation of very stable glassy solids.
RELEVANT PAPERS
Statistical Mechanics of Dynamic Pathways to Self-assembly Ann. Rev. Phys. Chem. 2015, 66, 143.
Investigating Amorphous Order in Stable Glasses by Random Pinning Phys. Rev. Lett. 2014, 112, 255701.