Interparticle interactions and crystallization transition in charged colloidal suspensions

The interaction between charged colloidal particles is known to be dominated by Coulomb interactions which are screened by the microscopic counterions. For highly diluted systems linear screening theory leads to the familiar DLVO (Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek) pair potential between spherical suspensions. For concentrated suspensions, however, nonlinear screening effects resulting in effective counterion-induced many-body forces between the macroparticles become important. An ''ab initio'' theory is discussed which fully describes these nonlinear effects. Furthermore, some results for freezing of charged colloidal suspensions are presented both in three and two spatial dimensions.