Density Functional Theory: what you can do (and what you should not do) with it

by Simone Belli (University of Utrecht, Netherlands)

Friday 16 Nov 2012, 11:00 → 12:00 Europe/Rome

Aula Corbino (Dip. di Fisica - Edificio E. Fermi)

During the last 50 years Density Functional Theory (DFT) has become a fundamental tool for the description of the equilibrium behavior of many-particles systems. I will present two applications of the theory to the equilibrium properties of model colloidal systems. First, I will analyze the predictions of DFT about the freezing transition of hard parallel squares (2D) and cubes (3D). Then I will describe some preliminary work on the effective interactions between colloidal particles induced by wetting phenomena. Our goal consists of understanding the interplay of these forces with the critical Casimir ones, arising when approaching the solvent critical point.