Prof Michael E Cates

Research Interests

Soft condensed matter: surfactants, colloids, polymers, emulsions, slurries and granular media. Theories of rheology, phase equilibrium, phase transition kinetics, ageing, jamming, and stress propagation. Hydrodynamic simulation of complex fluids: demixing, emulsification, flow of simple fluids, surfactant solutions and liquid crystals.

• NANIA Novel Approaches to Networks of Interacting Autonomes
• Jamming in colloidal suspensions: experiments
• Dielectric Contrast Induced Coupling of Electrostatic and Depletion Interactions
• Statistical Mechanics of Nonequilibrium Systems
• Hydrodynamic Simulations of Complex Fluids
• Topological Effects in Ring Polymers
• Phase transitions and scaling regimes in nonequilibrium statistical physics
• Numerical Simulations of Equilibrium Polymers
• Phase ordering of two-dimensional symmetrical binary fluids
• Rheology of disordered soft ``glassy'' materials.
• Phase ordering dynamics in mixtures of polymers and liquid-crystals
• Kinetic pathways of multi-phase surfactant systems
• Phase Transitions and Ordering in Driven Diffusive Systems
• Swelling and dissolution of onion phases: The effect of temperature
• Dynamics of interface instabilities in nonionic lamellar phases
• Improved Physical Theories of Granular Media
• Swelling and Dissolution of lamellar phases: The role of bilayer organisation
• Experimental consumption of soft matter and binary fluids
• Bond-formation during colloidal gelation

• Charged Surface Interactions in Solutions of Dielectric Macromolecules

• Nonadditivity of Polymeric and Charged Surface Interactions: Consequences for Doped Lamellar Phases
• Rheochaos in a Scalar Shear-Thickening Model
• Jamming, hysteresis and oscillation in scalar models for shear thickening
• Rheological instability in a simple shear thickening model
• Inertial effects in 3D spinodal decomposition of a symmetric binary fluid mixture: A lattice Boltzmann study
• Orientation fluctuation-induced spinodal decomposition in polymer/liquid crystal mixtures
• Topological effects in ring polymers (II): Influence of persistence length
• Topological effects in ring polymers (I): A computer simulation study
• Stresses in silos: Comparison between theoretical models and new experiments
• Rheology and ageing in soft materials
• Diffusion and rheology in a model of glassy materials
• Colloid-polymer mixtures at triple coexistence: Kinetic maps from free-energy landscapes
• Jamming and Stress Propagation in Granular Materials
• Swelling and Dissolution of lamellar phases: The role of bilayer organisation
• Metastable states and phase ordering dynamics
• Development of Stresses in Cohesionless Poured Sand
• Shear-Induced Clustering in a Simple Driven Diffusive Model
• Jamming, Force Chains, and Fragile Matter
• Dynamical Monte Carlo Study of Equilibrium Polymers (I): Static Properties
• Computational confirmation of scaling predictions for equilibrium polymers
• Jamming Transition in a Homogeneous One-Dimensional System: the Bus Route Model
• Spontaneous Jamming in One-Dimensional Systems
• Diffusive Evolution of Stable and Metastable Phases I: Local Dynamics of Interfaces
• Role of Metastable States in Phase Ordering Dynamics
• Topological effects in ring polymers (I): A computer simulation study