Open AccessThree-body forces at work: Three-body potentials derived from triplet correlations in colloidal suspensions
Author(s) -
Carsten Ruß,
Matthias Brünner,
Clemens Bechinger,
H. H. von Grünberg
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
epl (europhysics letters)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.625
H-Index - 165
eISSN - 1286-4854
pISSN - 0295-5075
DOI - 10.1209/epl/i2004-10345-8
Subject(s) - equilateral triangle , colloid , colloidal particle , work (physics) , particle (ecology) , physics , body force , classical mechanics , chemical physics , molecular physics , materials science , chemistry , thermodynamics , geometry , mathematics , oceanography , geology
Two- and three-particle correlation functions are computed from video-microscopy data of two-dimensional suspensions of charged colloids and inverted to derive the pair and three-body interaction potentials between the colloidal particles. Our method allows to resolve the full spatial dependence of the three-body potentials. Examining colloidal systems at different colloid densities, we find density-independent, attractive three-body potentials, with a minimum of a few kT that is most pronounced in the equilateral triangle configuration.
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