Test of a universality ansatz for the contact values of the radial distribution functions of hard-sphere mixtures near a hard wall

Abstract

Recent Monte Carlo simulation results for the contact values of polydisperse hard-sphere mixtures at a hard planar wall are considered in the light of a universality assumption made in approximate theoretical approaches. It is found that the data appear to fulfill the universality ansatz reasonably well, thus opening up the possibility of inferring the properties of complicated systems from the study of simpler ones.

Keywords:

• Universality ansatz
• Contact values
• Radial distribution functions
• Hard-sphere mixtures
• Hard wall

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dr. Alexandr Malijevský for making his simulation results available to us prior to publication, and Dr. David Reguera for bringing Ref. 27 to our attention. M.L.H. acknowledges the financial support of DGAPA-UNAM under project IN-110406. The research of A.S. and S.B.Y. was also supported by the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (Spain) through grant No. FIS2004-01399 (partially financed by FEDER funds).