The statistical mechanics of the classical two-dimensional Coulomb gas is exactly solved

Abstract

The model under consideration is a classical 2D Coulomb gas of pointlike positive and negative unit charges, interacting via a logarithmic potential. In the whole stability range of temperatures, the equilibrium statistical mechanics of this fluid is exactly solvable via an equivalence with the integrable 2D sine-Gordon field theory. The exact solution includes the bulk thermodynamics, special cases of the surface thermodynamics, and the large-distance asymptotic behavior of the two-body correlation functions.