2003/03/31 by P. Virnau, L. G. MacDowell, Virnau, P. +5
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) #Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) #cond-mat.soft #cond-mat.stat-mech
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.cond-mat/0303642
5 pages, 3 figures
arxiv created 2003/03/31 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30
A fluid in the NVT ensemble at T less than the critical temperature Tc and rho = N/V somewhat in excess of rhocoex (density of the saturated gas in the gas-liquid transition) is considered. For V->infinity, a macroscopic liquid droplet coexists with surrounding saturated gas according to the lever rule. For finite V, droplets can only exist if they exceed a minimum size. A (rounded) first order transition of the system occurs when the droplet evaporates into the supersaturated gas.Simulation evidence for this transition is given for a Lennard-Jones model and interpreted by a phenomenological theory. At the transition, the chemical potential difference mut-mucoex scales like L^(-d/(d+1)) for a cubic volume V=Ld in d dimensions, as L->infinity.