SOLID-FLUID TRANSITION AND INTERFACES WITH DENSITY-FUNCTIONAL APPROACHES

A brief review of the recent advances in the density functional theori es for strongly inhomogeneous systems is presented. Particular attenti on is paid to the structure of adsorbed films with strong layering str ucture and to the study of crystal phases as self-structured fluids. T he development of non-local density functional for hard spheres is fol lowed by perturbation theories to include the effects of soft attracti ve interactions. The latter require a good understanding of the correl ation structure in inhomogeneous systems, which may be very different from that of homogeneous fluids at the same mean density.