Equation of state for all regimes of a fluid: from gas to liquid

Abstract

The study of Mayer's cluster expansion (CE) for the partition function demonstrates a possible way to resolve the problem of the CE non-physical behavior at condensed states of fluids. In particular, a general equation of state is derived for finite closed systems of interacting particles, where the pressure is expressed directly in terms of the density (or system volume) and temperature-volume dependent reducible cluster integrals. Although its accuracy is now greatly affected by the limited character of the existing data on the reducible cluster integrals and, especially, the absence of any information on their density dependence, a number of simple approximations indicate the qualitative adequacy of this equation in various regimes of a fluid: from gaseous to liquid states (including the transition region).