FREE-ENERGY MODEL FOR THE INHOMOGENEOUS HARD-SPHERE FLUID MIXTURE - TRIPLET AND HIGHER-ORDER DIRECT CORRELATION-FUNCTIONS IN DENSE FLUIDS

Extensive Monte Carlo simulation results for the pair and triplet direct correlation functions of the one-component, hard-sphere system near freezing are presented. These results are in good agreement with the analytic predictions of a recently derived free energy density functional for the inhomogeneous hard-sphere fluid. This free energy model is based on the fundamental geometric measures of the particles. It provides the first unified derivation of the analytic description of the hard-sphere thermodynamics and pair structure as given by the scaled-particle and Percus-Yevick theories, and yields simple explicit expressions for the high order direct correlation functions of the uniform fluid. © 1990 American Institute of Physics.