Statistical Physics Of Macromolecules

This text presents an introduction to the field of statistical physics of macromolecules, from the basic concepts to modern achievements. Applications in various fields of polymer physical chemistry and molecular biophysics are also covered, as are: the fundamentals of statistical theory of polymer solutions and melts; classical, sealing and renormalization group approaches; the main ideas of statistical theories of polymer liquid crystals, polymer networks and polyelectrolytes; dynamic viscoelastic behavior of polymer systems; models of house, Zimm and reptation concepts; and specific features of main biopolymers - DNA and proteins. This English edition also includes sections describing the most important recent advances such as: statistical theory of DNA gel-electrophoresis, polymers at interfaces, and dynamics of concentrated solutions of rigid polymers.

This book develops a statistical mechanical analysis of the stability of biological macromolecules. The author's approach is valid both for the long time-scale needed for DNA bond disruption, and also for highly cooperative transitions needed to explain helix melting. Prohofsky develops a new theoretical approach for executing macromolecule calculations. In particular the author devises a method for describing chemical bond disruption in these large systems, which is then used to determine when the helix melts and how drugs can dissociate from the helix. The author finds melting temperatures to be in excellent agreement with experimental observations.

Macromolecules in Solution and Brownian Relativity illustrates the recent picture of statistical physics of polymers and polymer solutions that emerges from some paradigms of contemporary science joint together. Among its principal aims are discussing the consequences of a novel self-diffusion theory, which benefits from an extension towards relativistic-like principles, and the generalization of usual concepts met in polymer science in terms of geometry alone. The monograph gives the whole fundamentals necessary to handle the view proposed, which is set in the final chapters. All the formers see about to provide the reader with a comprehensive treatation of the necessary fundamentals of classical, relativistic, quantum and statistical mechanics. Among the most important mechanical theories ever developed, a chapter on the Brownian movement and another on macromolecules prepare the ground that is specific to face universality and scaling behaviors in polymer solutions. The scope of the book is therefore two-fold: On the one hand, it wishes to involve the readers and scholars into a new research on polymer physics and chemistry. On the other, to get close chemical physicists and physical chemists to disciplines which, traditionally, are far from their direct fields of interest. Cross-disciplinarity Novelty Potentiality

From the hydrophobic effect to protein-ligand binding, statistical physics is relevant in almost all areas of molecular biophysics and biochemistry, making it essential for modern students of molecular behavior. But traditional presentations of this material are often difficult to penetrate. Statistical Physics of Biomolecules: An Introduction brin