FREEZING OF SYSTEMS INTERACTING THROUGH INVERSE-POWER POTENTIALS

A self-consistent theory of freezing developed by the author (J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 62 (1993) 4316) is applied to systems interacting through inverse-power potentials. The theory is based on the idea of the thermodynamic perturbation approach and consists in a generalization of the modified weighted-density approximation of Denton and Ashcroft (Phys. Rev. A 39 (1989) 4701). The results of applications are in good agreement with the simulation data and usefulness of the theory is confirmed for systems interacting through soft-core or long-ranged potentials. Both theoretical and numerical comparisons between the present and other similar approaches are also made.