MODIFIED MEISTER-KROLL DENSITY-FUNCTIONAL APPLIED TO THE STRUCTURE OFAN INHOMOGENEOUS HARD-SPHERE FLUID

An alternative choice for the coarse-grained density to be used in the density functional introduced by Meister and Kroll is proposed and th e resulting functional is used in the determination of the structure o f a hard-sphere fluid near a hard wall. The coarse-grained density rho (a)(r) is chosen as the long wavelength component of the actual densit y rho(r). This ensures that rho(a)(r) is slowly varying compared with rho(r). When compared with the density profile obtained by computer si mulation, the results are comparable with those obtained by Groot and van der Eerden. Both methods ensure that the density functional leads to the correct direct correlation function of the homogeneous fluid.