Equation of state for five-dimensional hyperspheres from the chemical-potential route.

We use the Percus-Yevick approach in the chemical-potential route to evaluate the equation of state of hard hyperspheres in five dimensions. The evaluation requires the derivation of an analytical expression for the contact value of the pair distribution function between particles of the bulk fluid and a solute particle with arbitrary size. The equation of state is compared with those obtained from the conventional virial and compressibility thermodynamic routes and the associated virial coefficients are computed. The pressure calculated from all routes is exact up to third density order, but it deviates with respect to simulation data as density increases, the compressibility and the chemical-potential routes exhibiting smaller deviations than the virial route. Accurate linear interpolations between the compressibility route and either the chemical-potential route or the virial one are constructed.

Equation of state of sticky-hard-sphere fluids in the chemical-potential route.

The coupling-parameter method, whereby an extra particle is progressively coupled to the rest of the particles, is applied to the sticky-hard-sphere fluid to obtain its equation of state in the so-called chemical-potential route (µ route). As a consistency test, the results for one-dimensional sticky particles are shown to be exact. Results corresponding to the three-dimensional case (Baxter's model) are derived within the Percus-Yevick approximation by using different prescriptions for the dependence of the interaction potential of the extra particle on the coupling parameter. The critical point and the coexistence curve of the gas-liquid phase transition are obtained in the µ route and compared with predictions from other thermodynamics routes and from computer simulations. The results show that the µ route yields a general better description than the virial, energy, compressibility, and zero-separation routes.

Chemical-potential route for multicomponent fluids.

The chemical potentials of multicomponent fluids are derived in terms of the pair correlation functions for arbitrary number of components, interaction potentials, and dimensionality. The formally exact result is particularized to hard-sphere mixtures with zero or positive nonadditivity. As a simple application, the chemical potentials of three-dimensional additive hard-sphere mixtures are derived from the Percus-Yevick theory and the associated equation of state is obtained. This Percus-Yevick chemical-route equation of state is shown to be more accurate than the virial equation of state. An interpolation between the chemical-potential and compressibility routes exhibits a better performance than the well-known Boublík-Mansoori-Carnahan-Starling-Leland equation of state.

Conditional pair distributions in many-body systems: exact results for Poisson ensembles.

We introduce a conditional pair distribution function (CPDF) which characterizes the probability density of finding an object (e.g., a particle in a fluid) to within a certain distance of each other, with each of these two having a nearest neighbor to a fixed but otherwise arbitrary distance. This function describes special four-body configurations, but also contains contributions due to the so-called mutual nearest neighbor (two-body) and shared neighbor (three-body) configurations. The CPDF is introduced to improve a Helmholtz free energy method based on space partitions. We derive exact expressions of the CPDF and various associated quantities for randomly distributed, noninteracting points at Euclidean spaces of one, two, and three dimensions. Results may be of interest in many diverse scientific fields, from fluid physics to social and biological sciences.

Exact solution of the Percus-Yevick integral equation for fluid mixtures of hard hyperspheres.

Structural and thermodynamic properties of multicomponent hard-sphere fluids at odd dimensions have recently been derived in the framework of the rational function approximation (RFA) [Rohrmann and Santos, Phys. Rev. E 83, 011201 (2011)]. It is demonstrated here that the RFA technique yields the exact solution of the Percus-Yevick (PY) closure to the Ornstein-Zernike (OZ) equation for binary mixtures at arbitrary odd dimensions. The proof relies mainly on the Fourier transforms c(ij)(k) of the direct correlation functions defined by the OZ relation. From the analysis of the poles of c(ij)(k) we show that the direct correlation functions evaluated by the RFA method vanish outside the hard core, as required by the PY theory.

Multicomponent fluids of hard hyperspheres in odd dimensions.

Mixtures of hard hyperspheres in odd-space dimensionalities are studied with an analytical approximation method. This technique is based on the so-called rational function approximation and provides a procedure for evaluating equations of state, structure factors, radial distribution functions, and direct correlation functions of additive mixtures of hard hyperspheres with any number of components and in arbitrary odd-dimension space. The method gives the exact solution of the Ornstein-Zernike equation coupled with the Percus-Yevick closure, thus, extending the solution for hard-sphere mixtures [J. L. Lebowitz, Phys. Rev. 133, A895 (1964)] to arbitrary odd dimensions. Explicit evaluations for binary mixtures in five dimensions are performed. The results are compared with computer simulations, and a good agreement is found.

A white dwarf cooling age of 8 Gyr for NGC 6791 from physical separation processes.

NGC 6791 is a well studied open cluster that it is so close to us that can be imaged down to very faint luminosities. The main-sequence turn-off age ( approximately 8 Gyr) and the age derived from the termination of the white dwarf cooling sequence ( approximately 6 Gyr) are very different. One possible explanation is that as white dwarfs cool, one of the ashes of helium burning, (22)Ne, sinks in the deep interior of these stars. At lower temperatures, white dwarfs are expected to crystallize and phase separation of the main constituents of the core of a typical white dwarf ((12)C and (16)O) is expected to occur. This sequence of events is expected to introduce long delays in the cooling times, but has not hitherto been proven. Here we report that, as theoretically anticipated, physical separation processes occur in the cores of white dwarfs, resolving the age discrepancy for NGC 6791.

Virial series for fluids of hard hyperspheres in odd dimensions.

A recently derived method [R. D. Rohrmann and A. Santos, Phys. Rev. E 76, 051202 (2007)] to obtain the exact solution of the Percus-Yevick equation for a fluid of hard spheres in (odd) d dimensions is used to investigate the convergence properties of the resulting virial series. This is done both for the virial and compressibility routes, in which the virial coefficients B(j) are expressed in terms of the solution of a set of (d-1)/2 coupled algebraic equations which become nonlinear for d>/=5. Results have been derived up to d=13. A confirmation of the alternating character of the series for d>/=5, due to the existence of a branch point on the negative real axis, is found and the radius of convergence is explicitly determined for each dimension. The resulting scaled density per dimension 2eta(1/d), where eta is the packing fraction, is wholly consistent with the limiting value of 1 for d-->infinity. Finally, the values for B(j) predicted by the virial and compressibility routes in the Percus-Yevick approximation are compared with the known exact values [N. Clisby and B. M. McCoy, J. Stat. Phys. 122, 15 (2006)].

Structure of hard-hypersphere fluids in odd dimensions.

The structural properties of single component fluids of hard hyperspheres in odd space dimensionalities d are studied with an analytical approximation method that generalizes the rational function approximation earlier introduced in the study of hard-sphere fluids [S. B. Yuste and A. Santos, Phys. Rev. A 43, 5418 (1991)]. The theory makes use of the exact form of the radial distribution function to first order in density and extends it to finite density by assuming a rational form for a function defined in Laplace space, the coefficients being determined by simple physical requirements. Fourier transform in terms of reverse Bessel polynomials constitute the mathematical framework of this approximation, from which an analytical expression for the static structure factor is obtained. In its most elementary form, the method recovers the solution of the Percus-Yevick closure to the Ornstein-Zernike equation for hyperspheres at odd dimensions. The present formalism allows one to go beyond by yielding solutions with thermodynamic consistency between the virial and compressibility routes to any desired equation of state. Excellent agreement with available computer simulation data at d=5 and d=7 is obtained.