The Nature of Asymmetry in Fluid Criticality

TL;DR

This paper investigates the asymmetry in fluid criticality by separating non-analytical contributions using experimental data and confirms the complete scaling theory, providing a method to determine key coefficients without complex renormalization-group analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a method to extract scaling-field coefficients responsible for asymmetry directly from mean-field equations, validating complete scaling theory for fluid criticality.

Findings

Separated two sources of asymmetry in fluid criticality.

Validated the complete scaling theory against experimental data.

Provided a new method to determine scaling-field coefficients.

Abstract

By combining accurate liquid-vapor coexistence and heat-capacity data, we have unambiguously separated two non-analytical contributions of liquid-gas asymmetry in fluid criticality and proved the validity of "complete scaling" [Fisher et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 696 (2000); Phys. Rev. E, 67, 061506, (2003)]. We have also developed a method to obtain two scaling-field coefficients, responsible for the two sources of the asymmetry, from mean-field equations of state. Since the asymmetry effects are completely determined by Ising critical exponents, there is no need for a special renormalization-group theoretical treatment of asymmetric fluid criticality.