Fluids with power-law repulsion: Hyperuniformity and energy fluctuations.

Abstract

We revisit the equilibrium statistical mechanics of a classical fluid of point-like particles with repulsive power-law pair interactions, focusing on density and energy fluctuations at finite temperature. Such long-range interactions, decaying with inter-particle distance $r$ as $1/r^s$ in $d$ dimensions, are known to fall into two qualitatively different categories. For $sd$ (``weakly" long-range interactions) screening and hyperuniformity do not occur. Using scaling arguments, variational analysis, and Monte Carlo simulations, we find another qualitative distinction. For $s\geq d/2$ the strong repulsion at short distances leads to enhanced small-wavelength density fluctuations, decorrelating particle positions. This prevents indefinitely negative entropy and large energy fluctuations. The distinct behaviors for $s\geq d/2$ and $s