Hidden Scale Invariance in Polydisperse Mixtures of Exponential Repulsive Particles

J Phys Chem B. 2021 Jan 14;125(1):317-327. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.0c09726. Epub 2020 Dec 28.

Abstract

Polydisperse systems of particles interacting by the purely repulsive exponential (EXP) pair potential are studied in regard to how structure and dynamics vary along isotherms, isochores, and isomorphs. The sizable size polydispersities of 23%, 29%, 35%, and 40%, as well as energy polydispersity 35%, were considered. For each system an isomorph was traced out covering about one decade in density. For all systems studied, the structure and dynamics vary significantly along the isotherms and isochores but are invariant to a good approximation along the isomorphs. We conclude that the single-component EXP system's hidden scale invariance (implying isomorph invariance of structure and dynamics) is maintained even when a sizable polydispersity is introduced into the system.