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Updated: Aug 11, 2026

Quantitative and Qualitative Examination of Particle-particle Interactions Using Colloidal Probe Nanoscopy
Published on: July 18, 2014
van der Waals forces between nanoclusters: importance of many-body effects
Hye-Young Kim1, Jorge O Sofo, Darrell Velegol
1Department of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, 16802, USA. hyk2@psu.edu
Abstract:
van der Waals interactions between nanoclusters have been calculated with a self-consistent, coupled dipole method. The method accounts for all many-body (MB) effects. Comparison is made between the exact potential energy, V, and the values obtained with two alternative methods: the sum of two-body interactions and the sum of two-body and three-body interactions. For all cases considered, the three-body term alone does not accurately represent the MB contributions to V. MB contributions are especially large for shape-anisotropic clusters.
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