Entropic interactions on a colloidal sphere near the edge of a terrace.

We calculated the entropic interactions between a colloidal sphere and the hard edge of a terrace by means of Monte Carlo simulation with the acceptance ratio method. Comparison with the Asakura-Oosawa approximation indicates that the AO approximation is more accurate in this model than other known models. Our simulation results are also in qualitative agreement with the experimental results obtained by A.D. Dinsmore et al.