2D Coulomb gases and the renormalized energy (Q2354157)

The statistical mechanics of classical two-dimensional ``Coulomb gases'' with general potential and arbitrary \(\beta\) (the inverse of temperature) is presented. Such ensembles also correspond to random matrix models in some particular cases. The formal limit \(\beta=\infty\) corresponds to ``weighted Fekete sets'' [\textit{M. Fekete}, Math. Zeitschr. 17, 228--249 (1923; JFM 49.0047.01)], which case also falls within the analysis here. By a suitable splitting of the Hamiltonian, it is seen, that the problem is connected to that of the renormalized energy of the Coulomb interaction of point charge in a plane [the authors, Commun. Math. Phys. 313, No. 3, 635--743 (2012; Zbl 1252.35034)]. This shows that one can expect that this opens a good way to measure the disorder of an infinite configuration of points in the plane. By this procedure one is able to examine the situation at the microscopic scale. In this way several new results are offered: a next-order asymptotic expansion of the partition function; estimates on the probability of fluctuations from the equilibrium measure at microscale; and a large-deviation type result that states, that the configurations above a certain threshold of \(W\) have an exponentially small probability. The estimate becomes sharp, when \(\beta=\infty\), which shows that the system has to ``crystallize'' to a minimizer of \(W\). This result is compared to the weighted Fekete sets and this offers a conjecture on an interesting feature of Abrikosov triangular lattices [\textit{A. A. Abrikosov} and \textit{I. M. Khalatnikov}, Sov. Phys., JETP 5, 887--893 (1957); translation from Zhurn. Ehksper. Teor. Fiz. 32, 1083--1091 (1957; Zbl 0080.44802)]. Original abstract partially transformed by the reviewer.