Classical statistical mechanics of a rectilinear assembly

Abstract

It is shown that all the classical thermodynamical properties and the equation of state of a rectilinear assembly of spherical molecules with short-range attractive forces acting only between neighbours can be derived from a single partition function which is an analytic function of the pressure and the temperature. The thermodynamical functions are simply related to the Laplace transform of the function e−E(x)/(kT), where E(x) is the interaction energy between two neighbouring molecules. Although this linear model behaves like a perfect gas at high temperatures and like a crystal near the absolute zero, there are no critical phenomena, owing to the analytic character of the partition function. It is, however, pointed out that at very low temperatures the slope of the isothermal curves can suffer extremely sharp changes which may be interpreted as changes of phase, and this point is illustrated by an example.Finally, I should like to express my sincere gratitude to Prof. H. Jones for his guidance of this work and for his invaluable advice throughout. My thanks are also due to the Turkish Ministry of Education for the award of a scholarship.