• Maria Lukacova, University Mainz
• Martin Hanke, University of Mainz

Multiscale modeling is a central topic in theoretical condensed matter physics and materials science. One prominent class of materials, whose properties can rarely be understood on one length scale and one time scale alone, is soft matter. The properties of soft materials are determined by an intricate interplay of energy and entropy, and minute changes of molecular interactions may lead to massive changes of the system's macroscopic properties.

The sound theoretical development of multiscale models and corresonding computer simulations are not at all straightforward. Over the last decade these problems have therefore attracted rising interest in physics, chemistry, applied mathematics, and engineering, but it is the interdiscplinary combination of these disciplines that holds the greatest promise.

In this minisymposium we focus on recent advances on some of the most pressing problems in multiscale modeling obtained in joint efforts by physicists, chemists, mathematicians, and computer scientists. These problems include the development and further understanding of coarse-grained models in itself and on their dynamical properties, numerical simulations with variable resolutions and levels of coarse-graining, as well as the combination of particle models on the one hand with continuum models on the other hand. The minisymposium will also address inverse problems arising in this context.