Oscillating Yukawa fluid at a hard wall: field theory description

Abstract

ABSTRACTA field-theoretical approach is applied to study the structure of an oscillating Yukawa fluid in contact with a hard wall. The system is described beyond the mean field approximation with the Gaussian fluctuations taken into account. Analytical expressions for the pair correlation function, the density profiles, and the adsorption coefficient are derived. These results are analysed for different values of the temperature and the bulk density as well as the parameters of the pair potential. In order to estimate the validity of the applied approximations, the theoretical results are compared with the original computer simulations data. We show that the Gaussian approximation provides a much better description of the fluid density profile as compared to the mean field approximation.