Instructors: Vijay Krishnamurthy
Teaching assistant: Ankan Man
Prerequisite: A first course in Statistical Physics. Genuine curiosity about the physics of living systems.
When and Where: Tue and Thu, 0945-1115, Feynman Lecture Hall (ICTS)
First meeting: 12 August 2025
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
- Chaikin and Lubensky, Principles of Condensed Matter Physics (Cambridge 1995)
- Nelson, Biological Physics: Energy, Information, Life (W H Freeman 2014)
- Phillips, Kondev, Theriot, and Garcia, Physical Biology of the Cell (Garland Science 2013)
- Siber and Ziherl, Cellular Patterns (CRC Press 2018)
- van Saarloos, Vitelli, and Zeravcic, Soft Matter (Princeton 2024)
- Hueschen and Phillips, The Restless Cell: Continuum Theories of Living Matter (Princeton 2024)
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