Abstract
A rational-function approximation method to analytically derive the radial distribution function and the structure factor of a hard-sphere fluid is revisited. The method provides a fluid structure thermodynamically consistent with a given equation of state. The Carnahan-Starling and a recently derived Padé (4,3) equations of state are considered. While the Carnahan-Starling equation leads to functions and even for densities larger than the crystalline close-packing density, their physical value is questionable already in the metastable fluid region. In the case of the much more reliable Padé equation of state, the method shows the existence of a threshold density, beyond which no meaningful fluid structure can be derived. This threshold value, whose signature is a diverging slope of at the contact distance, coincides with the one associated in the literature with the glass transition.
- Received 7 June 1995
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.53.4820
©1996 American Physical Society