A consistent calculation of the chemical potential for dense simple fluids.
A general method to calculate the excess chemical potential betamuex, that is based on the Kirkwood coupling parameter's dependence of the correlation functions, is presented. The expression for the one particle bridge function B(1)r is derived for simple fluids with spherical interactions. Only the knowledge of the bridge function B(2)r is required. The accuracy of our approach is illustrated for a dense hard sphere fluid. As far as B(2)r is considered as exact, B(1)r is found to be, at high densities, the normalized bridge function -B(2)rB(2)(r=0). This expression ensures a consistent calculation of the excess chemical potential by satisfying implicitly the Gibbs-Duhem constraint. Only the pressure-consistency condition is necessary to calculate the structural and thermodynamic properties of the fluid.