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Path-integral calculation of the third virial coefficient of quantum gases at low temperatures
Giovanni Garberoglio1, Allan H Harvey
1Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Computational Science (LISC), FBK-CMM and University of Trento, Povo (TN), Italy. garberoglio@fbk.eu
Abstract:
We derive path-integral expressions for the second and third virial coefficients of monatomic quantum gases. Unlike previous work that considered only Boltzmann statistics, we include exchange effects (Bose-Einstein or Fermi-Dirac statistics). We use state-of-the-art pair and three-body potentials to calculate the third virial coefficient of (3)He and (4)He in the temperature range 2.6-24.5561 K. We obtain uncertainties smaller than those of the limited experimental data. Inclusion of exchange effects is necessary to obtain accurate results below about 7 K.
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