Free energy expansions for renormalized systems for colloids

Abstract: We consider a binary system of small and large spheres of finite size in a continuous medium interacting via a non-negative potential. We work in the canonical ensemble and compute upper and lower bound for the free energy at finite and infinite volume by first integrating over the small spheres and then treating the effective system of the large ones which now interact via a multi-body potential. By exploiting the underlying structure of the original binary system we prove the convergence of the cluster expansion for the latter system and obtain a sufficient condition which involves the surface of the large spheres rather than their volume (as it would have been the case in a direct application of existing methods directly to the binary system). Our result is valid for the particular case of hard spheres (colloids) for which we rigorously treat the depletion interaction.