Complex Fluids and
                                 Phase Transitions

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 XII International Conference on the Discrete Simulation of Fluid Dynamics,
Augist 25-29 (2003), Beirut, Lebanon

XI international Conference of Discrete Simulation of Fluid Dynamics and
Soft Condensed Matter
August 5-9 (2002), Shanghai, China
 
 
 Polyelectrolytes 
&  Colloids
 Hydrodynamics & 
 Brownian  Motion
 Phase Transitions & Critical Behavior  Coulombic 
    Fluids

Polyelectrolytes &
Colloids

Many  important biological macromolecules, such as e.g. DNA,  are Polyelectrolytes.  Solutions of Polyelectrolytes
and of Charged Colloidal paricles exhibit very interesting phase behavior: Phase transitions may be accompanied
by a sudden change of  a gyration radius of a polymer chain,  of an average charge of a macromolecule, etc. We
developed a theory of electrostatically driven  chain collapse in dilute polyelectrolyte solutions,  which occurs as a
first-order phase transition (PRL 81, 1998).  Later this phase  transition has been detected in experiments
(Mel'nikov  et al, JACS, 121  (1999) 1130).  We also developed a theory of phase transitions in colloidal solutions
of particles with variable  surface charges.

   My main  publications on the topic are:

   N.V.Brilliantov, D.V.Kuznetsov and  R.Klein,
   Chain Collapse and Counterion Condensation in Dilute Polyelectrolyte Solutions,
   Phys. Rev. Lett., 81, (1998) 1433.  pdf file (171 kB)

   N.V.Brilliantov,
   Phase  Transitions  in  Solutions  of  Variably   Ionizable Particles,
   Phys. Rev. E., 48, (1993) 4536.   pdf file (2283 kB)
 

   N.V.Brilliantov, and V.V.Malinin,
   Liquid-liquid type phase transitions and variation of the particle charge in colloidal solutions,
   Colloidal Journal, 64, (2002) 261.
 
 

Hydrodynamics &
Brownian Motion

Particles in Complex Fluids, such as solutions of Polyelectrolyte or Colloids,  often carry a considerable
charge. Hence, the local properties of the solvent, such as e.g. viscosity,  around the particles may be
altered by the strong electric field. The other effect which is called the dielectric friction may also  significantly
influence the Brownian motion of particles in Complex Fluids.  The molecular motion in these systems
may be analyzed using the hydrodynamics of fluids with the internal degrees of freedom. For the case of polar
solvents such hydrodynamic equations are called Hubbard-Onsager equations. Solving the these hydrodynamic
equations we obtain the generalization of Stokes-Einstein and Stokes-Einstein-Debye relations for translational
and rotational Brownian motion.

My main  publications on the topic are:

N.V.Brilliantov, N.G.Vostrikova and O.P.Revokatov,
 Role of electrical interactionss in rotational motion of
 charged solute in polar solvents.
J. Phys. Chem.B, 102, (1998) 6299.
 pdf file (75 kB)

N.V.Brilliantov, and N.G.Vostrikova
Rotational  motion  of  Brownian  particles  with  surface charge,
Molecular Physics,  77, (1992) 957

N.V.Brilliantov, and P.L.Krapivsky,
Stokes laws for ions in solutions with ion-induced inhomogeneity,
J. Phys. Chem., 95, (1991) 6055-6057.

N.V.Brilliantov, V.P.Denisov, and P.L.Krapivsky,
Generalized Stokes-Einstein-Debye relation for charged
Brownian particles in solution,  Physica A, 175, (1991) 293-304.
 
 

Phase Transitions &
Critical Behavior

The critical behavior of simple fluids as well as of other fluids with a short-range interaction
potential corresponds to that of the Ising universality class. This follows from experiments,
computer simulations and theoretical reasonings.  For the  Coulombic Fluids   however, it is still
not completely clear to which universality class do these fluids belong. The most direct analysis of
the critical properties of the system may be performed using the Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson
(LGW) form of the system Hamiltonian. We develop a method which allows a rigorous mapping of
the fluid Hamiltonian onto the effective field-theoretical LGW Hamiltonian,  which coefficients
may be calculated analytically.  Using this approach we derive some relations between critical
parameters, which have been confirmed in numerical experiments (Camp P.J., Patey G.N.,
J. Chem.Phys. 114 (2001) 399) and analyze the  coulombic criticality.

My main  publications on the topic are:

N.V.Brilliantov,
Effective magnetic Hamiltonian and Ginzburg criterion for fluids,
Phys.Rev.E, 58, (1998)  2628.
 pdf file (136 kB)

N.Brilliantov, and  J.Valleau,
Thermodynamic Scaling Monte Carlo Study of the Liquid--Gas Transition in the Square--Well Fluid,
J.Chem.Phys., 108, (1998) 1115.

N.Brilliantov, and J.Valleau,
Effective Hamiltonian Analysis of Fluid Criticality and Application to the Square--Well Fluid,
J.Chem.Phys., 108, (1998) 1123.

N.V.Brilliantov, A.Yu.Loskutov and V.V.Malinin
Field-Theoretic analysis of critical behavior of a symmetric binary fluid,
Theor. Math. Phys., 130,  (2002)   p.123-135 (in russian).
 

Coulombic Fluids

Fluids  with long-range coulombic interactions, such as ionic solutions, plasma, etc.
are called coulombic fluids. The problem of critical behavior of  such fluids, i.e. of the
coulombic criticality, is still under discussion, since some the ionic fluids demonstrate
Ising criticality, while other - the classical one. Using the effective LGW Hamiltonian
and nonperturbative RG approach, we show that very long crossover from the classical
to Ising critical behavior may be observed. For the simplest model of the coulombic fluid,
for the model of One Component Plasma we derived the equation of state (EOS) which is
very accurate for all values of plasma parameter, from the Debye-Huckel limit up to the
Wigner crystallization point.  To derive this EOS we propose the Restricted Random Phase
Approximation.

My main  publications on the topic are:

N.V. Brilliantov,  C. Bagnuls and C.Bervillier,
Peculiarity of the Coulombic Criticality?,
Phys. Lett. A,  245, (1998) 274.  pdf file

N.V. Brilliantov,
Accurate First-Principle Equation of State for the One-Component Plasma,
Contrib. to Plasma Physics, 38, (1998) 489.

N.V.Brilliantov, V.V.Malinin and R.R.Netz,
Systematic Field-Theory for the Hard-Core One-Component Plasma,
Eur. Phys. J. D, 18, (2002) 339. pdf file

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