Statistical Field Theory of Inhomogeneous Polarizable Soft Matter

Standard approaches to modeling the electrostatic properties of inhomogeneous soft matter systems involves either neglecting dielectric contrast entirely, or imposing an ad-hoc dielectric constitutive law that is not consistent with pairwise van der Waals (VDW) interactions included elsewhere in the model. We recently developed a framework for building statistical field theories from coarse-grained particle models where the force centers can optionally carry monopole charges, dipoles, and/or classical Drude oscillators that confer polarizability. The resulting polarizable field theories self-consistently embed dielectric constitutive laws, VDW interactions, and a rich variety of charge and structure correlation physics. This talk will report on recent analytical results from loop expansions and numerical results from complex Langevin simulations that address: 1) the VDW contribution to the Flory interaction parameter in polymer blends and block copolymers, 2) the dielectric decrement or increment on adding salt to a polar or polarizable solvent, and 3) the electric-field induced shift in the critical temperature of a binary dielectric fluid mixture.