Rudolf Podgornik

Electrostatic Effects in Soft Matter and Biophysics

Preface. List of Participants. Structure and dynamic properties of membrane lipid and protein M. Caffrey. Cell model and Poisson-Boltzmann theory: A brief introduction M. Deserno, C. Holm. DNA Condensation and Complexation W.M. Gelbart. Interactions in Colloidal Suspensions D.G. Grier, S.H. Behrens. Computer Simulations of charged systems C. Holm, K. Kremer. Scaling description of charged polymers J.-F. Joanny. When Ion-Ion Correlations Are Important in Charged Colloidal Systems B. Jonsson, H. Wennerstrom. Direct Surface Force Measurement Techniques P. Kekicheff. Counterions in polyelectrolytes A.R. Khokhlov, et al. Distribution function theory of electrolytes and electrical double layers R. Kjellander. Field-Theoretic Approaches to Classical Charged Systems A.G. Moreira, R.R. Netz. Interactions and conformational fluctuations in macromolecular arrays R. Podgornik. Structure and phasebehavior of cationic-lipid DNA complexes J.O. Radler. Small angle scattering methods applied to polyelectrolyte solutions M. Rawiso. Lateral correlation of multivalent counterions is the universal mechanism of charge inversion T.T. Nguyen, et al. Highly Charged Polyelectrolytes: experimental aspects C.E. Williams. Index.

Perspective: Coulomb fluids—Weak coupling, strong coupling, in between and beyond

We present a personal view on the current state of statistical mechanics of Coulomb fluids with special emphasis on the interactions between macromolecular surfaces, concentrating on the weak and the strong coupling limits. Both are introduced for a (primitive) counterion-only system in the presence of macroscopic, uniformly charged boundaries, where they can be derived systematically. Later we show how this formalism can be generalized to the cases with additional characteristic length scales that introduce new coupling parameters into the problem. These cases most notably include asymmetric ionic mixtures with mono- and multivalent ions that couple differently to charged surfaces, ions with internal charge (multipolar) structure and finite static polarizability, where weak and strong coupling limits can be constructed by analogy with the counterion-only case and lead to important new insights into their properties that cannot be derived by any other means.

Charge-Fluctuation Forces between Rodlike Polyelectrolytes: Pairwise Summability Reexamined

We formulate low-frequency charge-fluctuation forces between charged cylinders - parallel or skewed - in salt solution: forces from dipolar van der Waals fluctuations and those from the correlated monopolar fluctuations of mobile ions. At high salt concentrations forces are exponentially screened. In low-salt solutions dipolar energies go as

Equation of state for polymer liquid crystals: Theory and experiment

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Energies and pressures in viruses: contribution of nonspecific electrostatic interactions.

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Materials perspective on Casimir and van der Waals interactions

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Strong-Coupling Electrostatics in the Presence of Dielectric Inhomogeneities

; monopolar energies vary as

Role of electrostatic interactions in the assembly of empty spherical viral capsids.

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Nonadditivity in van der Waals interactions within multilayers

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An electrostatic-surface stability interpretation of the “hydrophobic” force inferred to occur between mica plates in solutions of soluble surfactants

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