RESUMEN
We investigate Monte Carlo simulation strategies for determining the effective ("depletion") potential between a pair of hard spheres immersed in a dense sea of much smaller hard spheres. Two routes to the depletion potential are considered. The first is based on estimates of the insertion probability of one big sphere in the presence of the other; we describe and compare three such methods. The second route exploits collective (cluster) updating to sample the depletion potential as a function of the separation of the big particles; we describe two such methods. For both routes, we find that the sampling efficiency at high densities of small particles can be enhanced considerably by exploiting "geometrical shortcuts" that focus the computational effort on a subset of small particles. All the methods we describe are readily extendable to particles interacting via arbitrary potentials.
RESUMEN
We show that condensation in a capped capillary slit is a continuous interfacial critical phenomenon, related intimately to several other surface phase transitions. In three dimensions, the adsorption and desorption branches correspond to the unbinding of the meniscus from the cap and opening, respectively, and are equivalent to 2D-like complete-wetting transitions. For dispersion forces, the singularities on the two branches are distinct, owing to the different interplay of geometry and intermolecular forces. In two dimensions we establish precise connection, or covariance, with 2D critical-wetting and wedge-filling transitions: i.e., we establish that certain interfacial properties in very different geometries are identical. Our predictions of universal scaling and covariance in finite capillaries are supported by extensive Ising model simulation studies in two and three dimensions.
RESUMEN
Linearly sloped or "ramp" potentials belong to a class of core-softened models which possess a liquid-liquid critical point (LLCP) in addition to the usual liquid-gas critical point. Furthermore, they exhibit thermodynamic anomalies in their density and compressibility, the nature of which may be akin to those occurring in water. Previous simulation studies of ramp potentials have focused on just one functional form, for which the LLCP is thermodynamically stable. In this work we construct a series of ramp potentials, which interpolate between this previously studied form and a ramp-based approximation to the Lennard-Jones (LJ) potential. By means of Monte Carlo simulation, we locate the LLCP, the first order high density liquid (HDL)-low density liquid (LDL) coexistence line, and the line of density maxima for a selection of potentials in the series. We observe that as the LJ limit is approached, the LLCP becomes metastable with respect to freezing into a hexagonal close packed crystalline solid. The qualitative nature of the phase behavior in this regime shows a remarkable resemblance to that seen in simulation studies of accurate water models. Specifically, the density of the liquid phase exceeds that of the solid; the gradient of the metastable LDL-HDL line is negative in the pressure (p)-temperature (T) plane; while the line of density maxima in the p-T plane has a shape similar to that seen in water and extends into the stable liquid region of the phase diagram. As such, our results lend weight to the "second critical point" hypothesis as an explanation for the anomalous behavior of water.
RESUMEN
We study the wetting behavior of a symmetrical binary fluid below the demixing temperature at a nonselective attractive wall. Although it demixes in the bulk, a sufficiently thin liquid film remains mixed. On approaching liquid vapor coexistence, however, the thickness of the liquid film increases and it may demix and then wet the substrate. We show that the wetting properties are determined by an interplay of the two length scales related to the density and the composition fluctuations. The problem is analyzed within the framework of a generic two component Ginzburg-Landau functional (appropriate for systems with short-ranged interactions). This functional is minimized both numerically and analytically within a piecewise parabolic potential approximation. A number of surface transitions are found, including first-order demixing and prewetting, continuous demixing, a tricritical point connecting the two regimes, or a critical end point beyond which the prewetting line separates a strongly and a weakly demixed film. Our results are supported by detailed Monte Carlo simulations of a symmetrical binary Lennard-Jones fluid at an attractive wall.
RESUMEN
Recent Monte Carlo simulation studies of a Lennard-Jones fluid confined to a mesoscopic slit pore have reported evidence of "critical depletion" in the pore local number density near the liquid-vapor critical point. In this Brief Report we demonstrate that the observed depletion effect is in fact a simulation artifact arising from small systematic errors associated with the use of long range corrections for the potential truncation. Owing to the large near-critical compressibility, these errors lead to significant changes in the pore local number density. We suggest ways of avoiding similar problems in future studies of confined fluids.
RESUMEN
We develop a scaling theory for the finite-size critical behavior of the microcanonical entropy (density of states) of a system with a critically divergent heat capacity. The link between the microcanonical entropy and the canonical energy distribution is exploited to establish the former, and corroborate its predicted scaling form, in the case of the 3d Ising universality class. We show that the scaling behavior emerges clearly when one accounts for the effects of the negative background constant contribution to the canonical critical specific heat. We show that this same constant plays a significant role in determining the observed differences between the canonical and microcanonical specific heats of systems of finite size, in the critical region.
RESUMEN
The adsorption of a near-critical fluid confined in a slit pore is investigated by means of density functional theory and by Monte Carlo simulation for a Lennard-Jones fluid. Our work was stimulated by recent experiments for SF6 adsorbed in a mesoporous glass, which showed the striking phenomenon of critical depletion, i.e., the adsorption excess Gamma first increases but then decreases very rapidly to negative values as the bulk critical temperature T(c) is approached from above along near-critical isochores. By contrast, our density functional and simulation results, for a range of strongly attractive wall-fluid potentials, show Gamma monotonically increasing and eventually saturating as the temperature is lowered toward T(c) along both the critical (rho=rho(c)) and subcritical isochores (rho