Modes of counterion density-fluctuations and counterion-mediated attractions between like-charged fluid membranes

Abstract

Counterion-mediated attractions between like-charged fluid membranes are long-ranged and non-pairwise additive at high temperatures. At zero temperature, however, they are pairwise additive and decay exponentially with the membrane separation. Here we show that the nature of these attractions is determined by the dominant modes of fluctuations in the density of counterions. While the non-pairwise additive interactions arise from long-wavelength fluctuations and vanish at zero temperature, the short-ranged pairwise additive interactions arise from short-wavelength fluctuations and are stronger at low temperatures.

4 pages, 2 figures

References in corpus (6)

• The `Friction' of Vacuum, and other Fluctuation-Induced Forces
• Wigner crystal model of counterion induced bundle formation of rod-like polyelectrolytes
• Simple Model for Attraction between Like-Charged Polyions
• Attractive Interactions Between Rod-like Polyelectrolytes: Polarization, Crystallization, and Packing
• The nature of attraction between like charged rods
• Novel Electrostatic Attraction from Plasmon Fluctuations

Cited by in corpus (11)

• A Materials Perspective on Casimir and van der Waals Interactions
• Electrostatic Interactions in Strongly-Coupled Soft Matter
• Perspective: Coulomb fluids -- weak coupling, strong coupling, in between and beyond
• Counterion Condensation and Fluctuation-Induced Attraction
• Dressed Counterions: Strong Electrostatic Coupling in the Presence of Salt
• Weak and Strong-Coupling Electrostatic Interactions between Asymmetrically Charged Planar Surfaces
• One-dimensional counterion gas between charged surfaces: Exact results compared with weak- and strong-coupling analysis
• Bending rigidity of stiff polyelectrolyte chains: Single chain and a bundle of multichains
• Conformational Instability of Rodlike Polyelectrolytes due to Counterion Fluctuations
• Electrostatic Fluctuations in Soap Films
• Where the linearized Poisson-Boltzmann cell model fails: (II) the planar case as a prototype study