JOINT DESCRIPTION OF THE VAPOR LIQUID AND CONSOLUTE CRITICAL PHENOMENA

A generalized formulation of the principle of critical-point universal ity for binary mixtures is proposed. Just as for one-component fluids, the critical behavior of binary mixtures is determined by two scaling fields: a strong ordering field conjugate to the order parameter and a weak field. Both scaling fields are linear combinations of three fie ld variables which are related to the temperature and the chemical pot entials of the two components with coefficients that vary along the cr itical line. (C) 1994 American Institute of Physics.