Some Ideas and Areas for Literature Research or Projects

I’ve chosen a few topical areas of Statistical Mechanics that are in active development today.  These topics could be the subject of literature research (either a broad survey, or on a more specific topic), or a project (e.g., performing a transition path sampling Monte Carlo simulation on a system of your choice).

1.              Nucleation and Growth
2.              Rare Events
3.              Transition Path Sampling
4.              Glasses
5.              Polymers
6.              Non-Equilibrium Work Theorems and Single-Molecule Measurements
7.              Microcanonical Statistical Mechanics and Density-of-States Monte Carlo
8.              Brownian Ratchets, Maxwell’s Daemons, and Biomolecular Motors
9.              Chaos, Quantum Chaos, and Ergodicity

---

In addition, here are some articles that might give you some inspiration.

"Nonequilbrium Thermodynamics of Small Systems" by Carlos Bustamante, Jan Liphardt, and Felix Ritort Physics Today, July 2005, p. 43-48. This review article for the scientific public gives a nice survey of the statistical thermodynamic principles emerging from cutting edge experimental and theoretical work being done on molecular scale systems, both technological and biological. A bibliography is provided to the primary literature.

"Life's Universal Scaling Laws" by Geoffrey B. West and James H. Brown Physics Today, September 2004, p. 36. This article surveys scaling laws in living systems, similar to those found in physical or engineering systems arrived at by dimensional considerations such as phase transitions. One of the assumptions used in deriving the laws is that "Organisms evolve toward an optimal state in which the energy required for resource distribution is minimized." While this is more thermodynamic in flavor, perhaps the article may inspire you to consider corresponding statistical thermodynamic ideas. A bibliography is provided to the primary literature.