A van der Waals free energy in electrolytes revisited

A system of three electrolytes separated by two parallel planes is considered. Each region is described by a dielectric constant and a Coulomb fluid in the Debye-H\"uckel regime. In their book Dispersion Forces, Mahanty and Ninham have given the van der Waals free energy of this system. We rederive this free energy by a different method, using linear response theory and the electrostatic Maxwell stress tensor for obtaining the dispersion force.Comment: 7 pages. PACS numbers updated. References update

Surface correlations for two-dimensional Coulomb fluids in a disc

After a brief review of previous work, two exactly solvable two-dimensional models of a finite Coulomb fluid in a disc are studied. The charge correlation function near the boundary circle is computed. When the disc radius is large compared to the bulk correlation length, a correlation function of the surface charge density can be defined. It is checked, on the solvable models, that this correlation function does have the generic long-range behaviour, decaying as the inverse square distance, predicted by macroscopic electrostatics. In the case of a two-component plasma (Coulomb fluid made of two species of particles of opposite charges), the density correlation function on the boundary circle itself is conjectured to have a temperature-independent behaviour, decaying as the -4 power of the distance.Comment: 15 pages, Latex, submitted to J.Phys.:Condens.Matte

Two-component plasma in a gravitational field: Thermodynamics

We revisit the model of the two-component plasma in a gravitational field, which mimics charged colloidal suspensions. We concentrate on the computation of the grand potential of the system. Also, a special sum rule for this model is presented.Comment: 7 pages, LaTeX2

The Ideal Conductor Limit

This paper compares two methods of statistical mechanics used to study a classical Coulomb system S near an ideal conductor C. The first method consists in neglecting the thermal fluctuations in the conductor C and constrains the electric potential to be constant on it. In the second method the conductor C is considered as a conducting Coulomb system the charge correlation length of which goes to zero. It has been noticed in the past, in particular cases, that the two methods yield the same results for the particle densities and correlations in S. It is shown that this is true in general for the quantities which depend only on the degrees of freedom of S, but that some other quantities, especially the electric potential correlations and the stress tensor, are different in the two approaches. In spite of this the two methods give the same electric forces exerted on S.Comment: 19 pages, plain TeX. Submited to J. Phys. A: Math. Ge

Another Derivation of a Sum Rule for the Two-Dimensional Two-Component Plasma

In a two-dimensional two-component plasma, the second moment of the number density correlation function has the simple value $\{12 \pi [1-(\Gamma/4)]^2\}^{-1}$, where $\Gamma$ is the dimensionless coupling constant. This result is derived directly by using diagrammatic methods.Comment: 10 pages, uses axodraw.sty, elsart.sty, elsart12.sty, subeq.sty; accepted for publication in Physica A, May 200

Charge Fluctuations for a Coulomb Fluid in a Disk on a Pseudosphere

The classical (i.e. non-quantum) equilibrium statistical mechanics of a Coulomb fluid living on a pseudosphere (an infinite surface of constant negative curvature) is considered. The Coulomb fluid occupies a large disk communicating with a reservoir (grand-canonical ensemble). The total charge $Q$ on the disk fluctuates. In a macroscopic description, the charge correlations near the boundary circle can be described as correlations of a surface charge density $\sigma$. In a macroscopic approach, the variance of $Q$ and the correlation function of $\sigma$ are computed; they are universal. These macroscopic results are shown to be valid for two solvable microscopic models, in the limit when the microscopic thickness of the surface charge density goes to zero.Comment: 19 pages, LaTe