We discuss the application of Monte Carlo methods to the self-consistent ca
lculation of a Ginzburg-Landau free energy functional for Lennard-Jones sys
tems in three dimensions. Following this discussion, we demonstrate that th
e parameters in the coarse-grained free energy can be extracted from a mult
ivariate distribution of energies and particle densities which, when suitab
ly reweighted, permit one to extrapolate the results to other nearby points
in the thermodynamic parameter space. For the purposes of illustration, bo
th single-phase and liquid-gas coexistence are considered here with the aim
of describing various regions of the phase diagram with a single function
and, in doing so, providing a link between atomistic and mesoscopic length
scales. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-9606(00)51833-9].