Saturation of Electrostatic Potential: Exactly Solvable 2D Coulomb Models

Abstract

We test the concepts of renormalized charge and potential saturation, introduced within the framework of highly asymmetric Coulomb mixtures, on exactly solvable Coulomb models. The object of study is the average electrostatic potential induced by a unique "guest" charge immersed in a classical electrolyte, the whole system being in thermal equilibrium at some inverse temperature $β$. The guest charge is considered to be either an infinite hard wall carrying a uniform surface charge or a charged colloidal particle. The systems are treated as two-dimensional; the electrolyte is modelled by a symmetric two-component plasma of point-like $\pm e$ charges with logarithmic Coulomb interactions. Two cases are solved exactly: the Debye-Hückel limit $βe^2\to 0$ and the Thirring free-fermion point $βe^2 = 2$. The results at the free-fermion point can be summarized as follows: (i) The induced electrostatic potential exhibits the asymptotic behavior, at large distances from the guest charge, whose form is different from that obtained in the Debye-Hückel (linear Poisson-Boltzmann) theory. This means that the concept of renormalized charge, developed within the nonlinear Poisson-Boltzmann theory to describe the screening effect of the electrolyte cloud, fails at the free-fermion point. (ii) In the limit of an infinite bare charge, the induced electrostatic potential saturates at a finite value in every point of the electrolyte region. This fact confirms the previously proposed hypothesis of potential saturation.