Effective attraction between like-charged colloids in a two-dimensional plasma.
The existence of attractions between like-charged colloids immersed in ionic solution has been discovered in recent experiments. This phenomenon contradicts the predictions of Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek and indicates a failure of mean-field theory. We study a toy model based on a two-dimensional one-component plasma, which is exactly soluble at one particular coupling constant. We show that colloidal interaction results from a competition between ion-ion repulsion and longer ranged ion-void attraction.
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Department of Physics, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, USA.
Girvin
S M
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Rajaraman
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