HIGH-DENSITY SCALING SOLUTION TO THE ONSAGER MODEL OF LYOTROPIC NEMATICS

We show that the exact orientation distribution function (ODF) of the Onsager model for the nematic liquid crystalline phase of thin hard ro d-like particles at high density can be scaled onto a single curve, wh ich needs to be determined numerically only once. The scaling solution is in better agreement with simulation results on a system of sphere- cylinders of length-to-width ratio L/D = 40 than the Gaussian ODF, hit herto believed to be the best representation. The phase behaviour dete rmined from the scaling solution, and from its first-order low-density correction, are compared to the exact results.