Related papers: Lectures on Molecular- and Nano-scale Fluctuations…
We study by Monte Carlo simulations a coarse-grained model of a water layer confined in a fixed disordered matrix of hydrophobic nanoparticles at different particle concentrations c. For c=0 (bulk water) we find a first order liquid-liquid…
The past decade or so has witnessed a large number of articles about water structure. The most incisive experiments involve radiation with a wavelength compatible with the observed inter-molecular separations found in water, of order $\sim…
We generalize the predictions for attractions between over-all neutral surfaces induced by charge fluctuations/correlations to non-uniform systems that include dielectric discontinuities, as is the case for mixed charged lipid membranes in…
Water is a ubiquitous liquid with unique physico-chemical properties, whose nature has shaped our planet and life as we know it. Water in restricted geometries has different properties than in bulk. Confinement can prevent low-temperature…
This work is concerned with a simple model for a polar fluid, a Gaussian field model based on the excess density and on the polarization. It is a convenient framework to implement the dielectric properties of correlated liquids that stem…
These notes overlap with lectures given at the TASI summer schools in 2014 and 2011, as well as at the European School of High Energy Physics in 2013. This is primarily an attempt at transcribing my hand-written notes, with emphasis on…
The fluidic behavior of water at the micro/nano scale is studied by using of single DNA molecules as a model system. Stable curved DNA patterns with spans about one micron were generated by using of water flows, and observed by Atomic Force…
We review the literature on swimming in complex fluids. A classification is proposed by comparing the length and time scales of a swimmer with those of nearby obstacles, interpreted broadly, extending from rigid or soft confining boundaries…
These are lecture notes for lectures at the Park City Math Institute, summer 2007. We cover aspects of the dimer model on planar, periodic bipartite graphs, including local statistics, limit shapes and fluctuations.
A generally accepted understanding of the anomalous properties of water will only emerge if it becomes possible to systematically characterize water in the deeply supercooled regime, from where the anomalies appear to emanate. This has…
Particle-wave duality suggests we think of electrons as waves stretched across a sample, with wavevector k proportional to their momentum. Their arrangement in "k-space," and in particular the shape of the Fermi surface, where the highest…
We investigate hydrodynamic fluctuations in a 2D granular fluid excited by a vibrating base and in the presence of gravity, focusing on the transverse velocity modes. Since the system is inhomogeneous, we measure fluctuations in horizontal…
This is a paper compiled by students of the 2008 Summer School on Particles, Fields, and Strings held at the University of British Columbia on lectures given by Veronika Hubeny as understood and interpreted by the authors. We start with an…
Under ambient humidity, water spontaneously condenses in pores only a few nanometers in size, making nanoscale capillarity central to numerous natural phenomena and technological applications. At these dimensions, water may no longer be…
In this article we investigate through molecular dynamics simulations the diffusion behavior of the TIP4P/2005 water when confined in pristine and deformed carbon nanotubes (armchair and zigzag). To analyze different diffusive mechanisms,…
This paper is based on a course given by the author at the University of Rome ``La Sapienza'' in the Academic year 2000/2001. The intended aim of the course was to rapidly introduce, although not in an exhaustive way, the non-expert PhD…
In this work we present the dielectric behavior of water with a novel flexible model that improved all three sites water models Different concentrations of the ionic liquid 1- butyl-3-methylimidazolium [bmim]…
A microscopic model able to describe simultaneously the dynamic viscosity and the self-diffusion coefficient of fluids is presented. This model is shown to emerge from the introduction of fractional calculus in a usual model of condensed…
It is well known that water inside hydrophobic nano-channels diffuses faster than bulk water. Recent theoretical studies have shown that this enhancement depends on the size of the hydrophobic nanochannels. However, experimental evidence of…
Lectures given at International School of Physics ``Enrico Fermi'', Varenna, Villa Monastero, June 28-July 7 1994