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Updated: Mar 6, 2026

An Analog Macroscopic Technique for Studying Molecular Hydrodynamic Processes in Dense Gases and Liquids
Published on: December 4, 2017
Extensivity and additivity of the Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy for simple fluids
Moupriya Das1, Anthony B Costa2, Jason R Green1,3,4
1Department of Chemistry, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, Massachusetts 02125, USA.
Abstract:
According to the van der Waals picture, attractive and repulsive forces play distinct roles in the structure of simple fluids. Here, we examine their roles in dynamics; specifically, in the degree of deterministic chaos using the Kolmogorov-Sinai (KS) entropy rate and the spectra of Lyapunov exponents. With computer simulations of three-dimensional Lennard-Jones and Weeks-Chandler-Andersen fluids, we find repulsive forces dictate these dynamical properties, with attractive forces reducing the KS entropy at a given thermodynamic state. Regardless of interparticle forces, the maximal Lyapunov exponent is intensive for systems ranging from 200 to 2000 particles. Our finite-size scaling analysis also shows that the KS entropy is both extensive (a linear function of system-size) and additive. Both temperature and density control the "dynamical chemical potential," the rate of linear growth of the KS entropy with system size. At fixed system-size, both the KS entropy and the largest exponent exhibit a maximum as a function of density. We attribute the maxima to the competition between two effects: as particles are forced to be in closer proximity, there is an enhancement from the sharp curvature of the repulsive potential and a suppression from the diminishing free volume and particle mobility. The extensivity and additivity of the KS entropy and the intensivity of the largest Lyapunov exponent, however, hold over a range of temperatures and densities across the liquid and liquid-vapor coexistence regimes.
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