# Density-Dependent Finite System-Size Effects in Equilibrium Molecular Dynamics Estimation of Shear Viscosity: Hydrodynamic and Configurational Study

## TL;DR

This study investigates how finite system size affects the estimation of shear viscosity in molecular dynamics simulations, revealing oscillatory and scaling behaviors linked to hydrodynamic and configurational factors.

## Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of size effects on shear viscosity, distinguishing between hydrodynamic and configurational contributions through extensive simulations.

## Key findings

- Oscillatory size effect at high density
- L^{-1} scaling correction at low density
- Long-time tail behavior confirms hydrodynamic origin

## Abstract

We study the intrinsic nature of the finite system-size effect in estimating shear viscosity of dilute and dense fluids within the framework of the Green-Kubo approach. From extensive molecular dynamics simulations, we observe that the size effect on shear viscosity is characterized by an oscillatory behavior with respect to system size $L$ at high density and by a scaling behavior with an $L^{-1}$ correction term at low density. Analysis of the potential contribution in the shear-stress autocorrelation function reveals that the former is configurational and is attributed to the inaccurate description of the long-range spatial correlations in finite systems. Observation of the long-time inverse-power decay in the kinetic contribution confirms its hydrodynamic nature. The $L^{-1}$ correction term of shear viscosity is explained by the sensitive change in the long-time tail obtained from a finite system.