THERMODYNAMICS OF STRONGLY-COUPLED YUKAWA SYSTEMS NEAR THE ONE-COMPONENT-PLASMA LIMIT .1. DERIVATION OF THE EXCESS ENERGY

The excess energy for a system of charged mesoscopic particles or "particulates" immersed in a neutralizing background medium is derived analytically, and is shown to approach that of the classical one-component plasma in the limit of high background temperatures. Examples of such systems, which are known as Yukawa systems due to the form of the interparticle pair potential, include dusty plasmas and colloidal suspensions. The expression for the excess energy allows thermodynamic properties of Yukawa systems to be determined from Monte Carlo or molecular-dynamics simulations. © 1994 American Institute of Physics.