Departures from perfect isomorph behavior in Lennard-Jones fluids and solids

Models to predict configurational adiabats of Lennard-Jones fluids and their transport coefficients

A comparison is made between three simple approximate formulas for the configurational adiabat (i.e., constant excess entropy, sex) lines in a Lennard-Jones (LJ) fluid, one of which is an analytic formula based on a harmonic approximation, which was derived by Heyes et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 159, 224504 (2023)] (analytic isomorph line, AIL). Another is where the density is normalized by the freezing density at that temperature (freezing isomorph line, FIL). It is found that the AIL formula and the average of the freezing density and the melting density ("FMIL") are configurational adiabats at all densities essentially down to the liquid-vapor binodal. The FIL approximation departs from a configurational adiabat in the vicinity of the liquid-vapor binodal close to the freezing line. The self-diffusion coefficient, D, shear viscosity, ηs, and thermal conductivity, λ, in macroscopic reduced units are essentially constant along the AIL and FMIL at all fluid densities and temperatures, but departures from this trend are found along the FIL at high liquid state densities near the liquid-vapor binodal. This supports growing evidence that for simple model systems with no or few internal degrees of freedom, isodynes are lines of constant excess entropy. It is shown that for the LJ fluid, ηs and D can be predicted accurately by an essentially analytic procedure from the high temperature limiting inverse power fluid values (apart from at very low densities), and this is demonstrated quite well also for the experimental argon viscosity.

Freezing density scaling of transport coefficients in the Weeks-Chandler-Andersen fluid

It is shown that the transport coefficients (self-diffusion, shear viscosity, and thermal conductivity) of the Weeks-Chandler-Andersen (WCA) fluid along isotherms exhibit a freezing density scaling (FDS). The functional form of this FDS is essentially the same or closely related to those in the Lennard-Jones fluid, hard-sphere fluid, and some liquefied noble gases. This proves that this FDS represents a quasi-universal corresponding state principle for simple classical fluids with steep interactions. Some related aspects, such as a Stokes-Einstein relation without a hydrodynamic diameter and gas-to-liquid dynamical crossover, are briefly discussed. Simple fitting formulas for the transport coefficients of the dense WCA fluid are suggested.

Invariant dynamics in a united-atom model of an ionic liquid

We study a united-atom model of the ionic liquid 1-butyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium bis(trifluoromethyl)sulfonylamide to determine to what extent there exist curves in the phase diagram along which the microscopic dynamics are invariant when expressed in dimensionless, or reduced, form. The initial identification of these curves, termed isodynes, is made by noting that contours of reduced shear viscosity and reduced self-diffusion coefficient coincide to a good approximation. Choosing specifically the contours of reduced viscosity as nominal isodynes, further simulations were carried out for state points on these, and other aspects of dynamics were investigated to study their degree of invariance. These include the mean-squared displacement, shear-stress autocorrelation function, and various rotational correlation functions. These were invariant to a good approximation, with the main exception being rotations of the anion about its long axis. The dynamical features that are invariant have in common that they are aspects that would be relevant for a coarse-grained description of the system; specifically, removing the most microscopic degrees of freedom in principle leads to a simplification of the potential energy landscape, which allows for the existence of isodynes.

Vibrational model for thermal conductivity of Lennard-Jones fluids: Applicability domain and accuracy level

Exact mechanisms of thermal conductivity in liquids are not well understood, despite a rich research history. A vibrational model of energy transfer in dense simple liquids with soft pairwise interactions seems adequate to partially fill this gap. The purpose of the present paper is to define its applicability domain and to demonstrate how well it works within the identified applicability domain in the important case of the Lennard-Jones model system. The existing results from molecular dynamics simulations are used for this purpose. Additionally, we show that a freezing density scaling approach represents a very powerful tool to estimate the thermal conductivity coefficient across essentially the entire gas-liquid region of the phase diagram, including metastable regions. A simple practical expression serving this purpose is proposed.