Jerome Percus of the Computer Science and Mathematics Department of New York University is funded by the Physical Chemistry Program of the Chemistry Division to study classical fluids in confined geometries. In this research new techniques to analyze the behavior of microscopically confined fluids will be developed to study fluids confined in porous media, narrow slits and random quenched solids. The method will be to study first exactly solved one-dimensional toy models, and then to extrapolate these results to realistic three dimensional systems. Applications to non-equilibrium systems are also proposed. This research is likely to open new ways to study the behavior of fluids confined in a solid matrix. These systems are relevant to modern devices, for example liquid crystal in porous glass used in screens, and to natural systems such as fluids in pores of biomembranes.
