title: Application of the optimized Baxter model to the hard-core attractive Yukawa system.
abstract: We perform Monte Carlo simulations on the hard-core attractive Yukawa system to test the optimized Baxter model that was introduced by Prinsen and Odijk [J. Chem. Phys. 121, 6525 (2004)] to study a fluid phase of spherical particles interacting through a short-range pair potential. We compare the chemical potentials and pressures from the simulations with analytical predictions from the optimized Baxter model. We show that the model is accurate to within 10% over a range of volume fractions from 0.1 to 0.4, interaction strengths up to three times the thermal energy, and interaction ranges from 6% to 20% of the particle diameter, and performs even better in most cases. We furthermore establish the consistency of the model by showing that the thermodynamic properties of the Yukawa fluid computed via simulations may be understood on the basis of one similarity variable, the stickiness parameter defined within the optimized Baxter model. Finally, we show that the optimized Baxter model works significantly better than an often used, naive method determining the stickiness parameter by equating the respective second virial coefficients based on the attractive Yukawa and Baxter potentials.
authors.affiliation: Complex Fluids Theory, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Delft University of Technology, Julianalaan 67, 2628 BC Delft, The Netherlands. p.prinsen@tnw.tudelft.nl
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Prinsen
authors.forename: Josep C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Pàmies
authors.forename: Theo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Odijk
authors.forename: Daan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Frenkel