Abstract
Metal balls with a diameter of 1.59 mm, gently rubbed against a dielectric surface using a shaker, are seen to spontaneously exhibit a two-dimensional liquidlike order with macroscopic dimensions, viz., interball distances of several millimeters. This liquidlike order transforms to a gaslike order through coexistence upon decreasing the area fraction of the balls. The measured pair interaction of like-charged balls surprisingly exhibits a long-range attractive term analogous to that in charged colloids.
- Received 13 July 1999
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.84.3626
©2000 American Physical Society