DSpace logo

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://dspace.bits-pilani.ac.in:8080/jspui/handle/123456789/14253
Title: Debye screening versus Gauss law in electrostatics: Finite size effects
Authors: Mishra, Madhukar
Keywords: Physics
Debye screening
Plasma/colloid
Poisson equation
Gauss law
Boltzmann distribution
Issue Date: Oct-2007
Publisher: Elsevier
Abstract: We revisit the well-known topics of self- and induced-screening in an otherwise isotropic neutral plasma/colloid. It is pointed out that the standard Debye–Hückel (DH) theory (ignoring finite size effects) suffers from many ambiguities related to net ionic numbers, total charge of the system, role of the electrostatic Gauss law, short-distance behaviour of the potential and incorrectly normalized pair correlation functions. We give a new formulation (incorporating finite size effects) such that ionic numbers are maintained, the total charge of the system has physically correct value, the Gauss law boundary conditions are rigorously obeyed, short-distance behaviour of the potential is guaranteed automatically, and correlation functions are correctly normalized. Numerical differences between the two approaches show up if the screening length μ−1 becomes comparable to the size R of the system.
URI: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S037843710700622X
http://dspace.bits-pilani.ac.in:8080/jspui/xmlui/handle/123456789/14253
Appears in Collections:Department of Physics

Files in This Item:
There are no files associated with this item.


Items in DSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.