.
Program Overview
Christian Holm
Les Houches Summer School
MPI für Polymerforschung
Ackermannweg 10
D-55128 Mainz, Germany
Analytical methods
Statistical Mechanics of electrolytes and double layers. Integral
equation theory and Poisson-Boltzmann theory of charged
plates, membranes, colloids, polyelectrolytes.
Field theoretical and scaling approaches to polyelectrolytes and
polyampholytes.
Molecular interactions between colloids, polyelectrolytes,
charged lipids–DNA complexes, biological macromolecules
and biological soft matter.
Adsorption phenomena and soft matter in confined geometries.
Condensation phenomena for DNA.
Computational methods
Introduction to molecular dynamics of systems with long-range
interaction potentials.
Introduction to Monte–Carlo simulations of charged colloids
and polymers in confined geometries.
Statistical mechanics of various ensembles. Integrators,
Langevin dynamics. Treatment of long-range interactions in
periodic boundary conditions, reaction field methods, Ewald
sums, Fast Fourier Transformation accelerated methods (P3M).
Comparison of Poisson-Boltzmann and Debye-Hückel
approximations, electrostatic stiffness, membrane models.
Experimental methods
Direct force measurements: comparison between osmotic
stress, surface force apparatus, and atomic force microscopy.
Non specific interactions (dispersion and electrical double
layer interactions): DLVO and beyond (ion-ion correlation,
etc). Specific interactions (directional due to hydration of the
surfaces, presence of multipoles, hydrogen bonds, or due to
complexes by coordination, chemical or structural
inhomogeneities).
Other methods of experimental determination of interactions
(video microscopy, fluorescent microscopy): charged colloidal
systems in confined geometries, electrostatic stabilized lipid–
DNA complexes, condensation and interactions of single DNA
chains and molecular assemblies of DNA..
Scattering experiments in colloidal dispersions, membranes,
and polyelectrolyte solutions. Polyelectrolytes of various
architectures (linear, rings, stars), and the more specific case of
the hydrophobic polyelectrolytes.
New advances in scattering experiments: use of microbeams,
photon correlation spectroscopy (speckles), neutron spin echo,
real-time scattering experiments (phase transitions). Coupling
with other techniques (temperature and pressure jumps,
calorimetry, force measurements).
Advanced
Study
Institute
Euro Summer School
Electrostatic Effects in Soft
Matter and Biophysics
October 1- 13, 2000
in Les Houches, France