  We report a mechanism which can lead to long range attractions between
like-charged spherical macroions, stemming from the existence of metastable
ionized states. We show that the ground state of a single highly charged
colloid plus a few excess counterions is overcharged. For the case of two
highly charged macroions in their neutralizing divalent counterion solution we
demonstrate that, in the regime of strong Coulomb coupling, the counterion
clouds are very likely to be unevenly distributed, leading to one overcharged
and one undercharged macroion. This long-living metastable configuration in
turn leads to a long range Coulomb attraction.
