Direct Measurements of Chemical Potential Using computer simulations
Abstract
When two systems of particles are in contact and allow the transfer of particles between them, they will eventually reach what is called diffusive
equilibrium. Diffusive equilibrium means the two systems have the same
chemical potential. Chemical potential, µ, is a measure of how willing a system
is to give up a particle to another system. The purpose of our research
was to directly measure the chemical potential of a computer-simulated system.
To do this we used a Monte Carlo algorithm called the Demon algorithm
to measure the chemical potential of two different simulated models that will
be explained later. The Demon algorithm works like a thermometer to measure
the temperature of a system. We wanted to use the Demon in a similar
manner to measure the chemical potential of a system.