Special Condensed Matter Seminar - The Nirit and Michael Shaoul Fund for Visiting Scholars and Fellows
Professor Rudolf Podgornik, Department of physics, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Title: Van der Walls interactions, Lifshitz theory, Coulomb fluids and all that jazz
Abstract:
I will introduce the Lifshitz theory of van der Waals interactions and analyze the zero Matsubara frequency Lifshitz term in the case of Coulomb fluids (liquid conductors - electrolytes). I will comment on the relationship between the exact classical statistical mechanical partition function of the Coulomb fluids and show that it cancels the zero frequency Lifshitz term and substitutes a classical partition function at full coupling in its place. I will connect the fluctuation determinant in the classical partition function and the van der Waals interactions and discuss two examples of the general theory: screened van der Waals interactions and Kirkwood-Shumaker interactions that originate in dipolar and monopolar charge fluctuations, respectively.
