Effect of dispersion forces on the capillary-wave fluctuations of liquid surfaces

E Chacon and EM Fernandez and P Tarazona, PHYSICAL REVIEW E, 89 (2014).

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.89.042406

We present molecular dynamics evidence for the nonanalytic effects of the long-range dispersion forces on the capillary waves fluctuations of a Lennard-Jones liquid surface. The results of the intrinsic sampling method, for the analysis of the instantaneous interfacial shape, are obtained in large systems for several cut-off distances of the potential tail, and they show good agreement with the theoretical prediction by Napiorkowski and Dietrich, based on a density functional analysis. The enhancement of the capillary waves is quantified to be within 1% for a simple liquid near its triple point.

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