Statistical mechanical theory for steady state systems. VII. Nonlinear theory

The second entropy theory for nonequilibrium thermodynamics is extended to the nonlinear regime and to systems of mixed parity (even and odd functions of molecular velocities). The steady state phase space probability density is given for systems of mixed parity. The nonlinear transport matrix is obtained and it is shown to yield the analog of the linear Onsager-Casimir reciprocal relations. Its asymmetric part contributes to the flux and to the production of second entropy. The nonlinear transport matrix is not simply expressible as a Green-Kubo fluctuation equilibrium time correlation function. However, here the first nonlinear correction to the transport coefficient is given explicitly as a type of the Green-Kubo equilibrium time correlation function. The theory is illustrated by application to chemical kinetics.     

Statistical mechanical theory for steady-state systems. III. Heat flow in a Lennard-Jones fluid

A statistical mechanical theory for heat flow is developed based upon the second entropy for dynamical transitions between energy moment macrostates. The thermal conductivity, as obtained from a Green-Kubo integral of a time correlation function, is derived as an approximation from these more fundamental theories, and its short-time dependence is explored. A new expression for the thermal conductivity is derived and shown to converge to its asymptotic value faster than the traditional Green-Kubo expression. An ansatz for the steady-state probability distribution for heat flow down an imposed thermal gradient is tested with simulations of a Lennard-Jones fluid. It is found to be accurate in the high-density regime at not too short times, but not more generally. The probability distribution is implemented in Monte Carlo simulations, and a method for extracting the thermal conductivity is given.     

Statistical mechanical theory for steady state systems. VI. Variational principles

Several variational principles that have been proposed for nonequilibrium systems are analyzed. These include the principle of minimum rate of entropy production due to Prigogine [Introduction to Thermodynamics of Irreversible Processes (Interscience, New York, 1967)], the principle of maximum rate of entropy production, which is common on the internet and in the natural sciences, two principles of minimum dissipation due to Onsager [Phys. Rev. 37, 405 (1931)] and to Onsager and Machlup [Phys. Rev. 91, 1505 (1953)], and the principle of maximum second entropy due to Attard [J. Chem.. Phys. 122, 154101 (2005); Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 8, 3585 (2006)]. The approaches of Onsager and Attard are argued to be the only viable theories. These two are related, although their physical interpretation and mathematical approximations differ. A numerical comparison with computer simulation results indicates that Attard's expression is the only accurate theory. The implications for the Langevin and other stochastic differential equations are discussed.     

Statistical mechanical theory for steady state systems. V. Nonequilibrium probability density

The phase space probability density for steady heat flow is given. This generalizes the Boltzmann distribution to a nonequilibrium system. The expression includes the nonequilibrium partition function, which is a generating function for statistical averages and which can be related to a nonequilibrium free energy. The probability density is shown to give the Green-Kubo formula in the linear regime. A Monte Carlo algorithm is developed based upon a Metropolis sampling of the probability distribution using an umbrella weight. The nonequilibrium simulation scheme is shown to be much more efficient for the thermal conductivity of a Lennard-Jones fluid than the Green-Kubo equilibrium fluctuation method. The theory for heat flow is generalized to give the generic nonequilibrium probability densities for hydrodynamic transport, for time-dependent mechanical work, and for nonequilibrium quantum statistical mechanics.     

Statistical mechanical theory for steady state systems. II. Reciprocal relations and the second entropy

The concept of second entropy is introduced for the dynamic transitions between macrostates. It is used to develop a theory for fluctuations in velocity, and is exemplified by deriving Onsager reciprocal relations for Brownian motion. The cases of free, driven, and pinned Brownian particles are treated in turn, and Stokes' law is derived. The second entropy analysis is applied to the general case of thermodynamic fluctuations, and the Onsager reciprocal relations for these are derived using the method. The Green-Kubo formulas for the transport coefficients emerge from the analysis, as do Langevin dynamics.     

Statistical mechanical theory for steady state systems. VIII. General theory for a Brownian particle driven by a time- and space-varying force

A Brownian particle subject to a time- and space-varying force is studied with the second entropy theory for nonequilibrium statistical mechanics. A fluctuation expression is obtained for the second entropy of the path, and this is maximized to obtain the most likely path of the particle. Two approaches are used, one based on the velocity correlation function and one based on the position correlation function. The approaches are a perturbation about the free particle result and are exact for weak external forces. They provide a particularly simple way of including memory effects in time-varying driven diffusion. The theories are tested against computer simulation data for a Brownian particle trapped in an oscillating parabolic well. They accurately predict the phase lag and amplitude as a function of drive frequency, and they account quantitatively for the memory effects that are important at high frequencies and that are missing in the simplest Langevin equation.     

Statistical mechanical theory for steady state systems. IV. Transition probability and simulation algorithm demonstrated for heat flow

Two microscopic transition theorems are given for the probability of nonequilibrium work performed on a subsystem of a thermal reservoir along the trajectory in phase space of the subsystem. The resultant transition probability is applied to the case of heat flow down an applied temperature gradient. A combined molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo algorithm is given for such a nonequilibrium steady state. Results obtained for the thermal conductivity are in good agreement with previous Green-Kubo and nonequilibrium molecular dynamics results.     

Thermodynamic properties of Lennard-Jones chain molecules: renormalization-group corrections to a modified statistical associating fluid theory

A modified version of the statistical associating fluid theory (SAFT), the so-called soft-SAFT equation of state (EOS), has been extended by a crossover treatment to take into account the long density fluctuations encountered when the critical region is approached. The procedure, based on White's work from the renormalization group theory [Fluid Phase Equilibria 75, 53 (1992); L. W. Salvino and J. A. White, J. Chem. Phys. 96, 4559 (1992)], is implemented in terms of recursion relations where the density fluctuations are successively incorporated. The crossover soft-SAFT equation provides the correct nonclassical critical exponents when approaching the critical point, and reduces to the original soft-SAFT equation far from the critical region. The accuracy of the global equation is tested by direct comparison with molecular simulation results of Lennard-Jones chains, obtaining very good agreement and clear improvements compared to the original soft-SAFT EOS. Excellent agreement with vapor-liquid equilibrium experimental data inside and outside the critical region for the n-alkane series is also obtained. We provide a set of transferable molecular parameters for this family, unique for the whole range of thermodynamic properties.     

Extending the simple weighted density approximation for a hard-sphere fluid to a Lennard-Jones fluid II. Application

A simple weighted density approximation (SWDA) was extended to nonuniform Lennard-Jones fluids by following the spirit of a partitioned density function theory [S. Zhou, Phys. Rev. E 68 (2003) 061201] and mapping the hard-core part onto an effective hard-sphere fluid whose higher order terms beyond the second order of the functional perturbation expansion are treated by the SWDA. The resultant DFT formalism performs well for Lennard-Jones fluids under the influence of diverse external fields. With the present DFT formalism, we investigate in detail the structure and adsorption properties of a low-density LJ gas in a spherical cavity with a wall consisting of hard-sphere or LJ particles. It was found that when the cavity wall exerts an attractive external potential on the LJ particles in the cavity, the excess adsorption decreases as the temperature increases, while when the cavity wall exerts a hard repulsive external potential on the LJ particles in the cavity, the excess adsorption increases as the temperature increases.     

Statistical theory for hydrogen bonding fluid system of AaDd type (Ⅲ): Equation of state and fluctuations

The equation of the state of the hydrogen bonding fluid system of AaDd type is studied by the principle of statistical mechanics. The influences of hydrogen bonds on the equation of state of the system are obtained based on the change in volume due to hydrogen bonds. Moreover, the number density fluctuations of both molecules and hydrogen bonds as well as their spatial correlation property are investigated. Furthermore, an equation describing relation between the number density correlation function of "molecules-hydrogen bonds" and that of molecules and hydrogen bonds is derived. As application,taking the van der Waals hydrogen bonding fluid as an example, we considered the effect of hydrogen bonds on its relevant statistical properties.     

Equation of state for expanded fluid mercury: variational theory with many-body interaction

A variational associating fluid theory is proposed to describe equations of state for expanded fluid mercury. The theory is based on the soft-sphere variational theory, incorporating an ab initio diatomic potential and an attractive many-body potential; the latter is evaluated with quantum chemical methods and expressed as a function of the local atomic coordination number and the nearest-neighbor distance. The resultant equation of state can reproduce the observed gas-liquid coexistence curve with good accuracy, without introducing phenomenological effective pair potentials. Various thermodynamic quantities such as pressure, isocloric thermal pressure coefficient, adiabatic sound velocity, and specific heat are calculated over a wide density-temperature range and compared with available experimental data.     

Communication: transition state theory for dissipative systems without a dividing surface

Transition state theory is a central cornerstone in reaction dynamics. Its key step is the identification of a dividing surface that is crossed only once by all reactive trajectories. This assumption is often badly violated, especially when the reactive system is coupled to an environment. The calculations made in this way then overestimate the reaction rate and the results depend critically on the choice of the dividing surface. In this Communication, we study the phase space of a stochastically driven system close to an energetic barrier in order to identify the geometric structure unambiguously determining the reactive trajectories, which is then incorporated in a simple rate formula for reactions in condensed phase that is both independent of the dividing surface and exact.     

Freezing line of the Lennard-Jones fluid: a phase switch Monte Carlo study

We report a phase switch Monte Carlo (PSMC) method study of the freezing line of the Lennard-Jones (LJ) fluid. Our work generalizes to soft potentials the original application of the method to hard-sphere freezing and builds on a previous PSMC study of the LJ system by Errington [J. Chem. Phys. 120, 3130 (2004)]. The latter work is extended by tracing a large section of the Lennard-Jones freezing curve, the results of which we compare with a previous Gibbs-Duhem integration study. Additionally, we provide new background material regarding the statistical-mechanical basis of the PSMC method and extensive implementation details.     

Global and critical test of the perturbation density-functional theory based on extensive simulation of Lennard-Jones fluid near an interface and in confined systems

The structure of a Lennard-Jones (LJ) fluid subjected to diverse external fields maintaining the equilibrium with the bulk LJ fluid is studied on the basis of the third-order+second-order perturbation density-functional approximation (DFA). The chosen density and potential parameters for the bulk fluid correspond to the conditions situated at "dangerous" regions of the phase diagram, i.e., near the critical temperature or close to the gas-liquid coexistence curve. The accuracy of DFA predictions is tested against the results of a grand canonical ensemble Monte Carlo simulation. It is found that the DFA theory presented in this work performs successfully for the nonuniform LJ fluid only on the condition of high accuracy of the required bulk second-order direct correlation function. The present report further indicates that the proposed perturbation DFA is efficient and suitable for both supercritical and subcritical temperatures.     

A_aD_d型氢键流体的统计理论(V):球形微腔中的相平衡

利用密度泛函理论并结合改进的基本度量理论研究了球形微腔中AaDd型氢键流体的相态结构.首先,根据氢键流体在球腔中的吸附-脱附等温线以及相应的巨势等温线获得不同条件下氢键流体的相图.在此基础上,重点讨论了氢键作用、球腔尺寸以及腔壁与流体之间的相互作用等因素对氢键流体相平衡特征的影响.结果表明,流体层化转变和毛细凝聚的临界温度、临界密度和临界相区域等相态特征与这些因素密切相关.研究结果可为进一步揭示几何约束下氢键流体的相平衡及聚集态结构提供可能的理论线索.