title: Depletion potential in the infinite dilution limit.
abstract: The depletion force and depletion potential between two in principle unequal "big" hard spheres embedded in a multicomponent mixture of "small" hard spheres are computed using the rational function approximation method for the structural properties of hard-sphere mixtures [S. B. Yuste, A. Santos, and M. Lopez de Haro, J. Chem. Phys. 108, 3683 (1998)]. The cases of equal solute particles and of one big particle and a hard planar wall in a background monodisperse hard-sphere fluid are explicitly analyzed. An improvement over the performance of the Percus-Yevick theory and good agreement with available simulation results are found.
authors.affiliation: Departmento de Física, Universidad Extremadura, E-06071 Badajoz, Spain. santos@unex.es
authors.forename: Santos Bravo
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Yuste
authors.forename: Andrés
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Santos
authors.forename: Mariano
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: López de Haro