Modulated phases and slow dynamics in attractive colloids

A system with a short-range attraction and a competing long-range screened repulsion is studied by using the self-consistent Hartree approximation and a replica approach. It is shown that by varying the parameters of the repulsive potential and the temperature yields a phase coexistence, a lamellar and a glassy phase. These results, which are confirmed by molecular dynamic simulations on a system of particles interacting via a DLVO potential, provide novel insights in the role of modulated phases in the slow dynamics of charged colloids in polymeric solutions. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.