In this paper we propose ALF gravitational instantons of types A_k and D_k as
models for charged particle systems. We calculate the charges of the two
families. These are -(k +1) for A_k, which is proposed as a model for k+1
electrons, and 2-k for D_k, which is proposed as a model for either a particle
of charge +2 and k electrons or a proton and k-1 electrons. Making use of
preferred topological and metrical structures of the manifolds, namely
metrically preferred representatives of middle dimension homology classes, we
construct two different energy functionals which reproduce the Coulomb
interaction energy for a system of charged particles.Comment: 12 page
