The degree of ionization in the vicinity of critical points of classical Coulomb systems

Abstract

For the classical “charged balls” and “shelf” Coulomb models, the ionization equilibrium near the critical points of phase transitions of the first kind, found from numerical calculations, is considered. The degree of ionization is determined and shown to be very small near the critical point. The conclusion is reached that the phase transitions found are ordinary vapor–liquid transitions in a gas of neutral pairs.