Equilibrium properties of a multi-component ionic mixture: I. Sum rules for correlation functions

Equilibrium statistical methods are used to derive sum rules for two- and three-particle correlation functions of a multi-component ionic mixture. Some of these rules are general consequences of the electrostatic character of the interaction, whereas others depend on specific thermodynamic properties of the system. The first group of rules follows from the BBGKY hierarchy and a clustering hypothesis for Ursell functions. The sum rules of the second group are obtained by describing the system with the help of a restricted grand-canonical ensemble in which the particle numbers of the various components in the mixture fluctuate under the condition that the total charge in the system remains constant.