Investigation of many-body forces in krypton and xenon

The simplicity of the state dependence at relatively high temperatures ofthe many-body potential contribution to the pressure and energy has been pointed out previously [J. Ram and P. A. Egelstaff, J. Phys. Chem. Liq. 14, 29 (1984); A. Teitsima and P. A. Egelstaff, Phys. Rev. A 21, 367 (1980)]. In this paper, we investigate how far these many-body potential terms may be represented by simple models in the case of krypton on the 423-, 273-, 190-, and 150-K isotherms, and xenon on the 170-, 210-, and 270-K isotherms. At the higher temperatures the best agreement is found for the mean-field type of theory, and some consequences are pointed out. On the lower isotherms a state point is found where the many-body energy vanishes, and large departures from mean-field behavior are observed. This is attributed to the influence of short-ranged many-body forces