Free-energy variations for determinantal 2D plasmas with holes

Abstract

We study the Gibbs equilibrium of a classical 2D Coulomb gas in the determinantal case = 2. The external potential is the sum of a quadratic term and the potential generated by individual charges pinned in several extended groups. This leads to an equilibrium measure (droplet) with flat density and macroscopic holes. We consider ''correlation energy'' (free energy minus its mean-field approximation) expansions, for large particle number . Under the assumptions that the holes are sufficiently small, separated, and far from the droplet's outer boundary, we prove that (i) the correlation energy up to order 1 is independent of the holes' locations and orientations, and (ii) the difference between the correlation energies of systems differing by their number of holes essentially consists of ``topological'' $O(\log N)$ and $O(1)$ terms.