Fluid-fluid transitions of hard spheres with a very short-range attraction

TL;DR

This paper investigates fluid-fluid transitions in hard spheres with very short-range attractions, revealing a high-density transition that approaches random-close-packing as attraction range diminishes.

Contribution

It demonstrates the existence of a fluid-fluid transition in hard spheres with ultra-short-range attractions and analyzes its behavior as the attraction range approaches zero.

Findings

Fluid-fluid transition occurs at high density.

Critical point density approaches random-close-packing density.

Transition persists even when particles remain fluid at high densities.

Abstract

Hard spheres with an attraction of range a tenth to a hundredth of the sphere diameter are constrained to remain fluid even at densities when monodisperse particles at equilibrium would have crystallised, in order to compare with experimental systems which remain fluid. They are found to have a fluid-fluid transition at high density. As the range of the attraction tends to zero, the density at the critical point tends towards the random-close-packing density of hard spheres.