Coulomb Screening by Mobile Charges

More about the book

The idea for this book originated from a suggestion by Bernard, who noted the lack of a comprehensive textbook on Coulomb screening, a common issue across various scientific fields. The content was initially taught as a course for four years at Paris VI University, led by Prof. J.-F. Petroff. This extended version was developed after discussions with Alia Margolina-Litvin. The book aims to serve a multidisciplinary audience, requiring only a basic understanding of electromagnetism, elementary quantum mechanics, and thermal physics. It emphasizes a "simplicity first" approach, introducing new concepts, such as the dielectric function, in their most basic form before expanding to more complex ideas. The content remains accessible, with more abstract developments either omitted, placed in appendices, or summarized qualitatively. Despite these simplifications, the presentation maintains rigor, addressing topics quantitatively and providing results in mathematical form. Readers interested in the algebra should be able to follow the discussions throughout the text.