English

Finite-Size Effects in Non-Neutral Two-Dimensional Coulomb Fluids

Statistical Mechanics 2017-10-12 v1

Abstract

Thermodynamic potential of a neutral two-dimensional (2D) Cou\-lomb fluid, confined to a large domain with a smooth boundary, exhibits at any (inverse) temperature β\beta a logarithmic finite-size correction term whose universal prefactor depends only on the Euler number of the domain and the conformal anomaly number c=1c=-1. A minimal free boson conformal field theory, which is equivalent to the 2D symmetric two-component plasma of elementary ±e\pm e charges at coupling constant Γ=βe2\Gamma=\beta e^2, was studied in the past. It was shown that creating a non-neutrality by spreading out a charge QeQ e at infinity modifies the anomaly number to c(Q,Γ)=1+3ΓQ2c(Q,\Gamma) = - 1 + 3\Gamma Q^2. Here, we study the effect of non-neutrality on the finite-size expansion of the free energy for another Coulomb fluid, namely the 2D one-component plasma (jellium) composed of identical pointlike ee-charges in a homogeneous background surface charge density. For the disk geometry of the confining domain we find that the non-neutrality induces the same change of the anomaly number in the finite-size expansion. We derive this result first at the free-fermion coupling Γβe2=2\Gamma\equiv\beta e^2=2 and then, by using a mapping of the 2D one-component plasma onto an anticommuting field theory formulated on a chain, for an arbitrary coupling constant.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1702.06778,
  title  = {Finite-Size Effects in Non-Neutral Two-Dimensional Coulomb Fluids},
  author = {Ladislav Šamaj},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1702.06778},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

14 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-22T18:25:13.370Z