Discrete charges on a two-dimensional conductor (Q2501499)

It is investigated the electrostatic equilibria of \(N\) discrete charges of size \(1/N\) on a two-dimensional conductor. The uniform placement on the circle gives a correlation energy that tends exponentially to zero for large \(N\). The authors deduce an integral equation which describes the ``continuum'' behaviour of the deviation of the charges from the uniform placement on the circle. It is argued that this integral equation is not applicable both for singular shapes and in the symmetry broken regime. In the last part of the paper there are given various results for the singular limit of the Coulomb problem. The authors develop scaling arguments for the dependence of the energy on \(N\) in the singular limit and they apply these results for obtaining scaling laws for the symmetry-breaking transitions. The abstract results are compared with numerical simulations.