Abstract
We demand that the Gauss law at the edge must be obeyed by the electric potential ϕ(r) generated within a neutral plasma/electrolyte of strictly finite size by the introduction of a test charge q b . Our proposal has the nice features that total ionic numbers are conserved, the point-Coulomb behaviour of ϕ(r) is guaranteed at short-distance, and accumulation of induced charges near the centre and the surface can be demonstrated rigorously. In contrast, the standard Debye-Hückel potential ϕ D(r) applicable to unbounded plasma has the strange features that the Gauss law cannot be obeyed at the plasma’s edge, total ionic numbers themselves are altered, the short-distance Coulomb behaviour has to be imposed by hand, and induced charge appearance at the surface cannot be built-in.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
J D Jackson, Classical electrodynamics, Second ed. (Wiley, New York, 1975) p. 342
L D Landau and E M Lifshitz, Statistical physics (Part 1) (Pergamon, Oxford, 1985) p. 241
See p. 245 of ref. [2]
L D Landau and E M Lifshitz, Physical kinetics (Pergamon, Oxford, 1981) p. 131
J A Bittencourt, Fundamentals of plasma physics (Pergamon, Oxford, 1986) p. 286
D Sarmah, T Tessarotto and M Salimillah, Phys. Plasmas 13, 032102 (2006)
T C Killian, S Kulin, S D Bereson, L A Orozco, C Orzel and S L Rolston, Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 4776 (1999)
Giorgio Calucci, Acta Physica Polon. B36, 591 (2005)
Mingshen Gao, Phys. Rev. D41, 626 (1990)
M C Chou and T Matsui, Phys. Rev. D39, 1892 (1989)
R S Berry, S A Rice and J Ross, Physical chemistry, Second ed. (Oxford University Press, New York, 2000) pp. 772–776
H Löwen, A Esztermann, A Wysocki, E Allahyarov, R Messina, A Jusuf, N Hoffmann, D Gottwald, G Kahl, M Konicczny and C N Likos, J. Phys.: Conference Series 11, 207 (2005)
C P Royall, R Van Ruij and A Van Blaaderm, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 17, 2315 (2005)
Myung-Sukchun and W Richard Bowen, J. Colloid Int. Sci. 272, 330 (2004)
V J Menon, Am. J. Phys. 54, 662 (1986)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Dubey, R.K., Menon, V.J., Mishra, M. et al. Gauss law constraints on Debye-Hückel screening. Pramana - J Phys 69, 423–433 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12043-007-0143-0
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12043-007-0143-0