Binding of Similarly Charged Plates: A Global Analysis

Similarly and highly charged plates in the presence of multivalent counter ions attract each other, leading to electrostatically bound states. Using Monte-Carlo simulations we obtain the inter-plate pressure in the global parameter space. The equilibrium plate separation, where the pressure changes from attractive to repulsive, exhibits a novel unbinding transition. A systematic and asymptotically exact strong-coupling field-theory yields the bound state from a competition between counter-ion entropy and electrostatic attraction, in agreement with simple scaling arguments.