ANGULAR-CORRELATIONS AND STATISTICAL ENTROPY OF HARD SPHEROCYLINDERS - THE ISOTROPIC-NEMATIC TRANSITION

We calculate. using standard constant-pressure Monte Carlo techniques. the statistical entropy of a system of hard spherocylinders and resol ve the contribution of two-body correlations into a translational and an orientational part within the framework of a multiparticle correlat ion expansion of the configurational entropy. We find that the residua l term, that is cumulatively associated with correlations involving mo re than two particles, bears a neat signature, when plotted as a funct ion of the density, of the impending transition of the isotropic fluid into a nematic phase. We show that this one-phase structural indicati on of the isotropic-nematic transition is ascribed to the angular cont ribution in the pair entropy of the fluid. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B .V.