The Asakura-Oosawa model in the protein limit: the role of many-body interactions

TL;DR

This paper investigates the Asakura-Oosawa model in the protein limit, revealing that many-body interactions significantly alter phase behavior and structure, primarily exerting a repulsive effect compared to pair potential descriptions.

Contribution

It provides a full many-body analysis of the model in the protein limit, highlighting qualitative differences from pairwise approaches.

Findings

Many-body interactions are predominantly repulsive.

Significant qualitative differences in phase behavior compared to pair potential models.

Full many-body treatment alters the understanding of the model's structure.

Abstract

We study the Asakura-Oosawa model in the "protein limit", where the penetrable sphere radius $R_{AO}$ is much greater than the hard sphere radius $R_c$. The phase behaviour and structure calculated with a full many-body treatment show important qualitative differences when compared to a description based on pair potentials alone. The overall effect of the many-body interactions is repulsive.