Surface tension of liquids near the critical point

Abstract

A simple analytical microscopic expression for the surface tension of liquids $\gamma$ is obtained which is in a good agreement with available data of numerical experiments. We apply the integral transformation that maps the fluid Hamiltonian onto the field-theoretical Hamiltonian and show that the order parameter of the effective Hamiltonian corresponds to the one-body potential in the fluid. Revealing the physical meaning of the order parameter allows calculation of $\gamma$.

4 pages, 1 figure