Direct evaluation of the equilibrium distribution of physical clusters by a grand canonical Monte Carlo simulation

A new approach to cluster simulation is developed in the context of nucleation theory. This approach is free of any arbitrariness involved in the definition of a cluster. Instead, it preferentially and automatically generates the physical clusters, defined as the density fluctuations that lead to nucleation, and determines their equilibrium distribution in a single simulation, thereby completely bypassing the computationally expensive free energy evaluation that is necessary in a conventional approach. The validity of the method is demonstrated for a single component system using a model potential for water under several values of supersaturation. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-9606(98)50509-0].