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Summary: PROOF COPY 502144JCP
PROOF
COPY
502144JCP
Curvature dependent surface tension from a simulation of a cavity
in a Lennard-Jones liquid close to coexistence
M. P. Moody and P. Attard
Ian Wark Research Institute, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes, South Australia 5095
Received 17 July 2001; accepted 4 September 2001
Monte Carlo simulations have been used to calculate the surface tension of a planar liquid-vapor
interface of a Lennard-Jones fluid using a new cylindrical truncation correction procedure. A bubble
was mimicked by simulating a Lennard-Jones liquid close to coexistence containing a single
immobile hard-sphere cavity. From the density profile of this system the curvature dependent
surface tension has been estimated via calculation of the Helmholtz free energy of the system and
separately using a large cavity contact density expansion. Evidence is presented that the Tolman
length becomes increasingly negative as the critical temperature is approached and possibly changes
sign. © 2001 American Institute of Physics. DOI: 10.1063/1.1413514
I. INTRODUCTION
The dependence of surface tension on radius of curva-
ture is fundamental to the study of the properties of small
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