Abstract
The influence of the strength of repulsion between particles on the thermodynamic curvature scalar for the fluid and solid states is investigated for particles interacting with the inverse power () potential, where is the pair separation and is the softness. Exact results are obtained for in certain limiting cases, and the behavior determined for the systems in the fluid and solid phases. It is found that in such systems the thermodynamic curvature can be positive for very soft particles, negative for steeply repulsive (or large ) particles across almost the entire density range, and can change sign between negative and positive at a certain density. The relationship between and the form of the interaction potential is more complex than previously suggested, and it may be that is an indicator of the relative importance of energy and entropy contributions to the thermodynamic properties of the system.
- Received 31 October 2017
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.97.022119
©2018 American Physical Society