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On the statistical mechanics of classical Coulomb and dipole gases

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Abstract

A detailed, rigorous study of the statistical mechanics-screening- and critical properties, phase diagrams, etc., of classical Coulomb monopole and dipole gases in two or more dimensions is presented. The statistical mechanics of the two-dimensionalXY and Villain models is reconsidered and related to the one of two-dimensional lattice Coulomb gases. At low temperatures and moderate densities those gases behave like dipole gases. The Kosterlitz-Thouless transition is analyzed in that perspective and characterized by an order parameter. Techniques useful for a proof of existence of such a transition in a two-dimensional hard-core Coulomb gas are developed and applied to the study of dipole gases.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques, 35, Route de Chartres, F-91440, Bures-sur-Yvette

    Jürg Fröhlich

  2. Department of Mathematics, Rutgers University, 08903, New Brunswick, New Jersey

    Thomas Spencer

Authors
  1. Jürg Fröhlich
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  2. Thomas Spencer
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Additional information

A Sloan Fellow, and supported in part by NSF grant No. DMR 7904355.

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Fröhlich, J., Spencer, T. On the statistical mechanics of classical Coulomb and dipole gases. J Stat Phys 24, 617–701 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01011379

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01011379

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