2026-07-072026-07-07http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/146624We present the first direct measurement of three-body interactions in a colloidal system comprised of three charged colloidal particles. Two of the particles have been confined by means of a scanned laser tweezers to a line-shaped optical trap where they diffused due to thermal fluctuations. Upon the approach of a third particle, attractive three-body interactions have been observed. The results are in qualitative agreement with additionally performed nonlinear Poissson-Boltzmann calculations, which also allow us to investigate the microionic density distributions in the neighborhood of the interacting colloidal particles.Soft Condensed MatterThree-body interactions in colloidal systemstext