Statistical Field Theory for Simple fluids : Mean Field and Gaussian Approximations

TL;DR

This paper develops an exact field theoretical framework for simple classical liquids, deriving mean field and Gaussian approximations, and applies it to analyze the liquid-vapor transition.

Contribution

It introduces a novel field theoretical representation for simple fluids and derives approximations, providing new analytical tools for studying phase transitions.

Findings

Derived an exact field theory for simple liquids

Obtained mean field and Gaussian approximations

Applied theory to liquid-vapor transition analysis

Abstract

We present an exact field theoretical representation of the statistical mechanics of simple classical liquids with short-ranged pairwise additive interactions. The action of the field theory is obtained by performing a Hubbard-Stratonovich transformation of the configurational Boltzmann factor. The mean field and Gaussian approximations of the theory are derived and applications to the liquid-vapour transition considered.