Consider a fluid composed of two species of particles, where the interparticle pair potentials . On confining an equal number of particles from each species in a cavity, one finds that the average one body density profiles of each species are constrained to be exactly the same due to the symmetry, when both external cavity potentials are the same. For a binary fluid of Brownian particles interacting via repulsive Gaussian pair potentials that exhibits phase separation, we study the dynamics of the fluid one body density profiles on breaking the symmetry of the external potentials, using the dynamical density functional theory of Marconi and Tarazona (1999 J. Chem. Phys. 110 8032). On breaking the symmetry we see that the fluid one body density profiles can then show the phase separation that is present.
Funding
EPSRC grant number GR/S28631/01
History
School
Science
Department
Mathematical Sciences
Published in
Journal of Physics Condensed Matter
Volume
17
Issue
45
Citation
ARCHER, A., 2005. Dynamical density functional theory: phase separation in a cavity and the influence of symmetry. Journal of Physics Condensed Matter, 17 (45) S3253 doi:10.1088/0953-8984/17/45/009
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