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Updated: May 26, 2026

An Analog Macroscopic Technique for Studying Molecular Hydrodynamic Processes in Dense Gases and Liquids
Published on: December 4, 2017
Statics and dynamics of inhomogeneous liquids via the internal-energy functional
1Theoretische Physik II, Physikalisches Institut, Universität Bayreuth, D-95440 Bayreuth, Germany.
Abstract:
We give a variational formulation of classical statistical mechanics where the one-body density and the local entropy distribution constitute the trial fields. Using Levy's constrained search method, it is shown that the grand potential is a functional of both distributions, that it is minimal in equilibrium, and that the minimizing fields are those at equilibrium. The functional splits into a sum of entropic, external energetic, and internal energetic contributions. Several common approximate Helmholtz free-energy density functionals, such as the Rosenfeld fundamental measure theory for hard-sphere mixtures, are transformed to internal-energy functionals. The variational derivatives of the internal-energy functional are used to generalize dynamical density-functional theory to include the dynamics of the microscopic entropy distribution, as is relevant for studying heat transport and thermal diffusion.
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