 Solution

For a dilute stack, the membrane number per unit normal length is $1/d=\varphi /\delta$. Dividing the fluctuation repulsion per area by the repeat distance gives its free-energy density

The short-range electrostatic repulsion and long-range van der Waals attraction enter at second-virial order. In general, for an effective pair energy $U_{A_H}(\Gamma )$ over relative configurations $\Gamma$, the second virial coefficient has the Mayer-integral formwith a fixed normalization by the microscopic membrane thickness making $B_2$ dimensionless here. The mean-field contribution is quadratic in membrane concentration. The required two-power free energy can therefore be writtenChanges of microscopic normalization merely rescale $B_2$ by a positive constant and do not affect the transition.