Pattern formation and glassy phase in the phi4 theory with a screened electrostatic repulsion.
We study analytically the structural properties of a system with a short-range attraction and a competing long-range screened repulsion. This model contains the essential features of the effective interaction potential among charged colloids in polymeric solutions and provides novel insights on the equilibrium phase diagram of these systems. Within the self-consistent Hartree approximation and by using a replica approach, we show that varying the parameters of the repulsive potential and the temperature yields a phase coexistence, a lamellar, and a glassy phase. Our results strongly suggest that the cluster phase observed in charged colloids might be the signature of an underlying equilibrium lamellar phase, hidden on experimental time scales.
Tarzia
Marco
M
Dipartimento di Scienze Fisiche, INFN sezione di Napoli, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Complesso Universitario di Monte Sant' Angelo, via Cinthia, 80126 Napoli, Italy.
Coniglio
Antonio
A