Local density for two-dimensional one-component plasma

Abstract: We study the classical two-dimensional one-component plasma of $N$ positively charged point particles, interacting via the Coulomb potential and confined by an external potential. For the specific inverse temperature $\beta=1$ (in our normalization), the charges are the eigenvalues of random normal matrices, and the model is exactly solvable as a determinantal point process. For any positive temperature, using a multiscale scheme of iterated mean-field bounds, we prove that the equilibrium measure provides the local particle density down to the optimal scale of $N^{o(1)}$ particles. Using this result and the loop equation, we further prove that the particle configurations are rigid, in the sense that the fluctuations of smooth linear statistics on any scale are $N^{o(1)}$.