Physics of Living Matter

Instructors: Vijay Krishnamurthy

Teaching assistant: Jigyasa Watwani

Prerequisite: A first course in Statistical Physics.

When: Tuesdays 0945-1115 and Thursdays 1600-1730

Where: Feynman Lecture Hall (ICTS) [Offline course, no online component]

First meeting: 17th August 2023


This course will explore various aspects of soft condensed matter both at and away from thermodynamic equilibrium. The focus will be on examples drawn from living matter.

Evaluation

Homework assignments, mid-semester and end-semester exams

References

Books and reviews on biophysics

Outline

Overview of Soft and Living matter, Statistical dynamics, Response and correlation functions, Phase transitions, Active particles, Polymers, DNA elasticity, Membranes, Hydrodynamic descriptions, Anisotropic matter, Hydrodynamics of active matter, Cellular cytoskeleton, Motility of cells, Cell division, Tissue dynamics


The 2022 edition of this course was taught by Vijay Krishnamurthy and Archishman Raju, with Aditya Singh Rajput as the teaching assistant.

The 2019 edition of this course was taught by Vijay Krishnamurthy.

The 2017 edition of this course was taught by Vijay Krishnamurthy, with Amit Kumar and Alkesh Yadav from RRI/NCBS as teaching assistants.

The 2015 edition of this course was taught jointly by Vijay Krishnamurthy and Sandeep Krishna.