Absence of simulation evidence for critical depletion in slit pores

Recent Monte Carlo simulation studies of a Lennard-Jones fluid confined to a mesoscopic slit pore have reported evidence of "critical depletion" in th e pore local number density near the liquid-vapor critical point. In this B rief Report we demonstrate that the observed depletion effect is in fact a simulation artifact arising from small systematic errors associated with th e use of long range corrections for the potential truncation. Owing to the large near-critical compressibility, these errors lead to significant chang es in the pore local number density. We suggest ways of avoiding similar pr oblems in future studies of confined fluids. [S1063-651X(99)09007-8].