Phase coexistence of a Stockmayer fluid in an applied field

We examine two apects of Stockmayer fluids, which consist of point dipoles that additionally interact via an attractive Lennard-Jones potential. We perform Monte Carlo simulations to examine the effect of an applied field on the liquid-gas phase coexistence and show that a magnetic fluid phase does exist in the absence of an applied field. As part of the search for the magnetic fluid phase, we perform Gibbs ensemble simulations to determine phase coexistence curves at large dipole moments, μ. The critical temperature is found to depend linearly on μ2 for intermediate values of μ beyond the initial nonlinear behavior near μ=0 and less than the μ where no liquid-gas phase coexistence has been found. For phase coexistence in an applied field, the critical temperatures as a function of the applied field for two different μ are mapped onto a single curve. The critical densities change very little as a function of applied field. We also verify that in an applied field the liquid droplets within the two-phase coexistence region become elongated in the direction of the field. © 1995 The American Physical Society.