Weak Long-Ranged Casimir Attraction in Colloidal Crystals
arXiv:cond-mat/0107274 · doi:10.1209/epl/i2002-00481-1
Abstract
We investigate the influence of geometric confinement on the free energy of an idealized model for charge-stabilized colloidal suspensions. The mean-field Poisson-Boltzmann formulation for this system predicts pure repulsion among macroionic colloidal spheres. Fluctuations in the simple ions' distribution provide a mechanism for the macroions to attract each other at large separations. Although this Casimir interaction is long-ranged, it is too weak to influence colloidal crystals' dynamics.
5 pages 2 figures ReVTeX