Reliable charge measurement from configurational temperature analysis

This manuscript reviews the so-far used configurational temperature method and proposes that two details are essential to obtain reliable and unique charge measurements: first, the strength of the external confinement should not be used as a free parameter, and second, small distortions of the equilibrium configuration due to not perfectly similar particles should be taken into account by means of slight local adjustments in the confinement. To test our hypothesis, experimental as well as simulation data are used. Our results show that a reliable charge estimate based on configurational temperature is feasible.