Absence of the liquid phase when the attraction is not pairwise additive

TL;DR

This paper investigates how many-body attractions in simple model particles influence phase stability, revealing that the liquid phase can be absent or limited in the equilibrium phase diagram, unlike pairwise additive systems.

Contribution

It demonstrates that many-body attractions can suppress the liquid phase, providing insights into phase behavior beyond traditional pairwise interaction models.

Findings

Many-body attractions stabilize solid phases at low pressures.

The liquid phase is often absent or minimal in the phase diagram.

Results are relevant for understanding colloidal suspensions with complex interactions.

Abstract

Recent work on charged colloidal suspensions with very low levels of added salt has suggested that although pairs of the colloidal particles repel, clusters of the particles attract. Motivated by this, we study simple model particles which have many-body attractions. These attractions are generic many-body attractions and are not calculated for any specific colloidal suspension. We find that many-body attractions can stabilise solid phases at low pressures but that the liquid phase is either completely absent from the equilibrium phase diagram or present only within a small region of parameter space