Dynamics of entangled polymers

Project description

Polymers are extraordinarily long molecules, made out of chains of simpler molecules. They occur everywhere in our everyday lives, including in the DNA chains that make up our genetics, in many high-tech consumer products and in the simple plastic bag. Often these applications depend crucially on the way that the polymer chains move. This is especially true in concentrated polymer liquids, where the chain dynamics are controlled by how the chains become entangled with each other. A powerful mathematical framework for describing these entangled systems has been under development for some time now, but the ideas have yet to be fully developed, tested and exploited in practical applications. Working on this PhD project will give the opportunity to train in a wide range of mathematical techniques including analytical work, numerical computations and stochastic simulation and to apply these to problems of real practical impact. This lively research field involves mathematicians, scientists and engineers and a keenness to learn from and co-operate with researchers from a range of backgrounds would be a real asset in this project.