Dynamic properties of Lennard-Jones fluids and liquid metals

The dependence of the dynamic properties of liquid metals and Lennard-Jones fluids on the characteristics of the interaction potentials is analyzed. M olecular-dynamics simulations of liquids in analogous conditions but assumi ng that their particles interact either through a Lennard-Jones or a liquid -metal potential were carried out. The Lennard-Jones potentials were chosen so that both the effective size of the particles and the depth of the pote ntial well were very close to those of the Liquid-metal potentials. In orde r to investigate the extent to which the dynamic properties of liquids depe nd on the short-range attractive interactions as well as on the softness of the potential cores, molecular-dynamics simulations of the same systems bu t assuming purely repulsive interactions with the same potential cores were also performed. The study includes both single particle dynamic properties , such as the velocity autocorrelation functions, and collective dynamic pr operties, such as the intermediate scattering functions, the dynamic struct ure factors, the longitudinal and transverse current correlations, and the transport coefficients. [S1063-651X(99)07707-7].