Curvature dependent surface tension from a simulation of a cavity in a Lennard-Jones liquid close to coexistence

Monte Carlo simulations have been used to calculate the surface tension of a planar liquid-vapor interface of a Lennard-Jones fluid using a new cylindrical truncation correction procedure. A bubble was mimicked by simulating a Lennard-Jones liquid close to coexistence containing a single immobile hard-sphere cavity. From the density profile of this system the curvature dependent surface tension has been estimated via calculation of the Helmholtz free energy of the system and separately using a large cavity contact density expansion. Evidence is presented that the Tolman length becomes increasingly negative as the critical temperature is approached and possibly changes sign. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.