Biomedical subjects

L Mederos

Publications and source records attributed to L Mederos.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2001

Self-consistent nonperturbative theory for classical systems.

We construct a self-consistent nonperturbative theory for the structure and thermodynamics of a classical system of particles that goes beyond the usual approaches based on perturbation theory. Our theory, which gives accurate predictions for the phase diagram, is based on two ingredients: first, use is made of an exact expression for the free energy of a many-body system in terms of a reference system and a coupling integral connecting the latter to the final system; second, correlation functions may be very accurately approximated using a number of sum rules relating the radial distribution function with thermodynamic quantities. Consistency between the coupling integral expression and the sum rules may be achieved by means of a self-consistent process.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2000

Complex phase behavior induced by repulsive interactions

For a solid in which the interactions have a hard core plus a simple soft repulsive tail we show, using a perturbation theory, that the possible stable crystalline structures give rise to a rich phase behavior. We find two concomitant critical points each corresponding to phase transitions separating bcc and fcc structures, respectively, and the occurrence of a transition between fcc and bcc phases without change in density. This novel phenomenology may be relevant to the behavior of some metallic systems, colloids, and to water.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2000

Density-functional theory of inhomogeneous systems of hard spherocylinders

The smectic-A phase boundaries of a hard-spherocylinder fluid are calculated using a density-functional theory based on one proposed earlier by Somoza and Tarazona [Phys. Rev. A 41, 965 (1990)]. Our calculations do not employ the translation-rotation decoupling approximation used in previous density-functional theories. The calculated phase boundaries agree well with computer simulation results up to aspect ratios L/D approximately 5 and are in better agreement with the simulations than are previous theories. We generalize the model fluid by including long-range interactions with quadrupolar orientational symmetry, which are taken into account by mean-field approximation. For sufficiently large strength, these interactions produce a smectic-C phase, which undergoes either a continuous or weakly first-order transition to the smectic-A phase. The theory and numerical methods discussed here can be applied to the analysis of interfacial phenomena.

Journal Article↗

PubMed1999

Phase behavior of binary hard-sphere mixtures from perturbation theory.

Using a first-order perturbation theory, we have studied the phase diagram of a binary mixture of hard spheres for different values of the size ratio. Recent models for the two-body depletion potential between large spheres are used to take into account the role of the small spheres. The theory predicts a complex phase diagram including a fluid-solid transition at high packing fraction of small spheres, metastability of fluid-fluid demixing, an isostructural solid-solid transition at high packing fraction of the large spheres for sufficiently small values of the size ratio q of the spheres, and the tendency to sticky-sphere behavior in the limit q-->0. The agreement with recent simulation results is quite good. We also show that this phenomenology was already implicit in the pioneering work of Asakura and Oosawa.

Journal Article↗

PubMed1996