The Mayer f-function is an auxiliary function that often appears in the series expansion of thermodynamic quantities related to classical many-particle systems. It is named after chemist and physicist Joseph Edward Mayer.
Definition
Consider a system of classical particles interacting through a pair-wise potential
:<math>V(\mathbf{i},\mathbf{j})</math>
where the bold labels <math>\mathbf{i}</math> and <math>\mathbf{j}</math> denote the continuous degrees of freedom associated with the particles, e.g.,
:<math>\mathbf{i}=\mathbf{r}_i</math>
for spherically symmetric particles and
:<math>\mathbf{i}=(\mathbf{r}_i,\Omega_i)</math>
for rigid non-spherical particles where <math>\mathbf{r}</math> denotes position and <math>\Omega</math> the orientation parametrized e.g. by Euler angles. The Mayer f-function is then defined as
:<math>f(\mathbf{i},\mathbf{j})=e^{-\beta V(\mathbf{i},\mathbf{j})}-1</math>
where <math>\beta=(k_{B}T)^{-1}</math> the inverse absolute temperature in units of energy<sup>−1</sup> .
See also
- Virial coefficient
- Cluster expansion
- Excluded volume