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Normal-stress coefficients and rod climbing in colloidal dispersions

We calculate tractable microscopic expressions for the low-shear normal-stress coefficients of colloidal dispersions. Although restricted to the low rate regime, the presented formulas are valid for all volume fractions below the glass transition and for any interaction potential. Numerical results are presented for a system of colloids interacting via a hard-core attractive Yukawa potential, for which we explore the interplay between attraction strength and volume fraction. We show that the normal-stress coefficients exhibit nontrivial features close to the critical point and at high volume fractions in the vicinity of the reentrant glass transition. Finally, we exploit our formulas to make predictions about rod-climbing effects in attractive colloidal dispersions.