Very-short-wavelength collective modes in fluids

Abstract

The existence of very-short-wavelength collective modes in fluids is discussed. These collective modes are the extensions of the five hydrodynamic (heat, sound, viscous) modes to wavelengths of the order of the mean free path in a gas or to a fraction of the molecular size in a liquid. They are computed here explicitly on the basis of a model kinetic equation for a hard sphere fluid. At low densities all five modes are increasingly damped with decreasing wavelength till each ceases to exist at a cutoff wavelength. At high densities the extended heat mode softens very appreciably for wavelengths of the order of the size of the particles and becomes a diffusion-like mode that persists till much shorter wavelengths than the other modes. Except for the shortest wavelengths these collective modes and in particular the heat mode dominate the dynamical structure factorS(k, ω) for all densities. The agreement of the theory with experimentalS(k, ω) of liquid Ar seems to imply that very-short-wavelength collective modes also occur in real fluids.