Mayer f-function

The Mayer f-function is an auxiliary function that often appears in the series expansion of thermodynamic quantities related to classical many-particle systems.[1]

Definition

Consider a system of classical particles interacting through a pair-wise potential

V(\mathbf{i},\mathbf{j})

where the bold labels \mathbf{i} and \mathbf{j} denote the continuous degrees of freedom associated with the particles, e.g.,

\mathbf{i}=\mathbf{r}_i

for spherically symmetric particles and

\mathbf{i}=(\mathbf{r}_i,\Omega_i)

for rigid non-spherical particles where \mathbf{r} denotes position and \Omega the orientation parametrized e.g. by Euler angles. The Mayer f-function is then defined as

f(\mathbf{i},\mathbf{j})=e^{-\beta V(\mathbf{i},\mathbf{j})}-1

where \beta=(k_{B}T)^{-1} the inverse absolute temperature in units of (Temperature times the Boltzmann constant k_{B})−1 .

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Donald Allan McQuarrie, Statistical Mechanics (HarperCollins, 1976), page 228
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