Renormalized Interactions of Interfaces, Membranes and Polymers

Wetting, adhesion, and adsorption phenomena are considered which involve the mutual interaction of low-dimensional objects such as interfaces, mem-branes, and polymers. In general, the direct interactions arising from inter-molecular forces are strongly renormalized by thermally-excited shape fluctuations. This renormalization leads to a variety of unbinding transitions which exhibit complex critical behavior. The corresponding renormalization group flow is governed by a line of nontrivial fixed points and has a parabolic character. 1. Introduction and