Asymptotic behavior of correlation functions for electric potential and field fluctuations in a classical one- component plasma

Abstract

The correlations of the electric potential fluctuations in a classical one-component plasma are studied for large distances between the observation points. The two-point correlation function for these fluctuations is known to decay slowly for large distances, even if exponential clustering holds for the charge correlation functions. In this paper the asymptotic behavior of the generalk-point electric potential correlation functions is analyzed. Each of these correlation functions can be split into a reducible part, which is given by a sum of products of lower-order correlation functions, and a remaining irreducible part. It is shown, on the basis of an exponential clustering hypothesis for the charge correlation functions, that for allk⩾3 the irreducible parts of the electric potential correlation functions decay faster than any inverse power of the distance, if one or more of the observation points move far away from the others. Hence, the two-point electric potential correlation function is the only one with a slow algebraic decay. The same statement holds for the correlation functions of the electric field fluctuations.