Theoretical Description of Coulomb Balls - Fluid Phase
arXiv:0909.0775 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.80.066405
Abstract
A theoretical description for the radial density profile of a finite number of identical charged particles confined in a harmonic trap is developed for application over a wide range of Coulomb coupling (or, equivalently, temperatures) and particle numbers. A simple mean field approximation neglecting correlations yields a density profile which is monotonically decreasing with radius for all temperatures, in contrast to molecular dynamics simulations and experiments showing shell structure at lower temperatures. A more complete theoretical description including charge correlations is developed here by an extension of the hypernetted chain approximation, developed for bulk fluids, to the confined charges. The results reproduce all of the qualitative features observed in molecular dynamics simulations and experiments. These predictions are then tested quantitatively by comparison with new benchmark Monte Carlo simulations. Quantitative accuracy of the theory is obtained for the selected conditions by correcting the hypernetted chain approximation with a representation for the associated bridge functions.
10 figures, submitted to Physical Review E
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- Ground state of a confined Yukawa plasma
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- Classical Representation of a Quantum System at Equilibrium: Theory
- Classical Representation of a Quantum System at Equilibrium: Applications
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- Collective excitations of a spherically confined Yukawa plasma
- Charge Correlations in a Harmonic Trap
- Fluid Modes of a Spherically Confined Yukawa Plasma
- Controlling strongly correlated dust clusters with lasers
- Heat Transport in Confined Strongly Coupled 2D Dust Clusters
- Strong screening in the plum pudding model
- Theoretical description of spherically confined strongly correlated Yukawa plasmas
- Finite Temperature Quantum Effects on Confined Charges
- Shell formation in short like-charged polyelectrolytes in a harmonic trap
- Strongly coupled Yukawa plasma layer in a harmonic trap