[en] In a number of recent papers, the spectral properties of the Laplacian on randomly connected graphs have been studied within the replica formalism. In this letter we show how the replica formalism can be unravelled and we find an approximation for calculating the density of states which substantially simplifies the numerical resolution of the equations obtained, whilst giving results in excellent accord with the exact solution. (author). Letter-to-the-editor

[en] We analyse the steady-state regime of a one-dimensional Ising model under a tapping dynamics recently introduced by analogy with the dynamics of mechanically perturbed granular media. The idea that the steady-state regime may be described by a flat measure over metastable states of fixed energy is tested by comparing various steady-state time-averaged quantities in extensive numerical simulations with the corresponding ensemble averages computed analytically with this flat measure. The agreement between the two averages is excellent in all the cases examined, showing that a static approach is capable of predicting certain measurable properties of the steady-state regime. (author). Letter-to-the-editor

[en] A field theory to describe electrostatic interactions in soap films, described by electric multilayers with a generalized thermodynamic surface-charging mechanism, is studied. In the limit where the electrostatic interactions are weak, this theory is exactly soluble. The theory incorporates in a consistent way, the surface-charging mechanism and the fluctuations in the electrostatic field that correspond to the zero-frequency component of the van der Waals force. It is shown that these terms lead to a Casimir-like attraction that can be sufficiently large to explain the transition between the common black film to a Newton black film

[en] A simple model of soap films with nonionic surfactants stabilized by added electrolyte is studied. The model exhibits charge regularization due to the incorporation of a physical mechanism responsible for the formation of a surface charge. We use a Gaussian field theory in the film but the full nonlinear surface terms which are then treated at a one-loop level by calculating the mean-field Poisson-Boltzmann solution and then the fluctuations about this solution. We carefully analyze the renormalization of the theory and apply it to a triple-layer model for a thin film with Stern layer of thickness h. For this model we give expressions for the surface charge σ(L) and the disjoining pressure P_d(L) and show their dependence on the parameters. The influence of image charges naturally arises in the formalism, and we show that predictions depend strongly on h because of their effects. In particular, we show that the surface charge vanishes as the film thickness L→0. The fluctuation terms in this class of theories contribute a Casimir-like attraction across the film. Although this attraction is well known to be negligible compared with the mean-field component for model electrolytic films with no surface-charge regulation, in the model studied here these fluctuations also affect the surface-charge regulation leading to a fluctuation component in the disjoining pressure which has the same behavior as the mean-field component even for large film thickness

[en] We carry out the calculation of the surface tension for a model electrolyte to first order in a cumulant expansion about a free-field theory equivalent to the Debye-Hueckel approximation. In contrast with previous calculations, the surface tension is calculated directly without recourse to integrating thermodynamic relations. The system considered is a monovalent electrolyte with a region at the interface, of width h, from which the ionic species are excluded. In the case where the external dielectric constant ε₀ is smaller than the electrolyte solution's dielectric constant ε we show that the calculation at this order can be fully regularized. In the case where h is taken to be zero the Onsager-Samaras limiting law for the excess surface tension of dilute electrolyte solutions is recovered, with corrections coming from a nonzero value of ε₀/ε

[en] In this paper we consider the calculation of the disjoining pressure of a symmetric electrolytic soap film correct to two loops in perturbation theory. We show that the disjoining pressure is finite when the loop expansion is resummed using a cumulant expansion and requires no short distance cutoff in order to give a finite result. The loop expansion is resummed in terms of an expansion in g=l_B/l_D where l_D is the Debye length and l_B is the Bjerrum length. We show that there there is a nonanalytic contribution of order g ln(g). We also show that the two-loop correction is greater than the one-loop term at large film thicknesses suggesting a nonperturbative correction to the one-loop result in this limit