Negative specific heat in a Lennard-Jones-like gas with long-range interactions

Abstract

We study, through molecular dynamics, a conservative two-dimensional Lennard-Jones-like gas (with attractive potential $\propto r^{-\alpha }$). We consider the effect of the range index $\alpha$ of interactions, number of particles, total energy and particle density. We detect negative specific heat when the interactions become long-ranged ($0\le \alpha /d<1$).

LaTeX, 8 pages, 4 eps figures, contributed paper to the Proceedings of the International School and Workshop on Nonextensive Thermodynamics and physical applications, NEXT 2001, 23-30 May 2001, Cagliari (Italy) (Physica A) (New Title, new Fig. 4)