Universality versus nonuniversality in asymmetric fluid criticality

• Main Author: M.A. Anisimov
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Institute for Condensed Matter Physics 2013-06-01
• Series: Condensed Matter Physics
• Subjects: fluids; critical point; universality; complete scaling
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.5488/CMP.16.23603

Critical phenomena in real fluids demonstrate a combination of universal features caused by the divergence of long-range fluctuations of density and nonuniversal (system-dependent) features associated with specific intermolecular interactions. Asymptotically, all fluids belong to the Ising-model class of universality. The asymptotic power laws for the thermodynamic properties are described by two independent universal critical exponents and two independent nonuniversal critical amplitudes; other critical amplitudes can be obtained by universal relations. The nonuniversal critical parameters (critical temperature, pressure, and density) can be absorbed in the property units. Nonasymptotic critical behavior of fluids can be divided in two parts, symmetric ("Ising-like") and asymmetric ("fluid-like"). The symmetric nonasymptotic behavior contains a new universal exponent (Wegner exponent) and the system-dependent crossover scale (Ginzburg number) associated with the range of intermolecular interactions, while the asymmetric features are generally described by an additional universal exponent and by three nonasymptotic amplitudes associated with mixing of the physical fields into the scaling fields.