English

Uniform distributions in nonuniform systems: Wall potentials generating constant density profiles in classical density functional theory

Soft Condensed Matter 2026-07-06 v1 Other Condensed Matter Statistical Mechanics

Abstract

We study the inverse problem of classical density functional theory for inhomogeneous fluids: finding the wall potential that produces a constant equilibrium density profile, i.e., a perfectly flat density distribution in the accessible region adjacent to a substrate. Within Rosenfeld's fundamental measure theory, we solve this problem for a one-component fluid in planar, spherical, and cylindrical geometries, considering both a hard-sphere fluid and a fluid with an additional truncated Lennard-Jones attraction treated at the mean-field level. Explicit analytical expressions are obtained for planar walls, while spherical walls also admit an analytical treatment in a more cumbersome form. The cylindrical case is treated numerically. The construction provides an explicit microscopic realization of structure-cancelling wall fields, related to flat-profile conditions that occur under special matching conditions in interfacial theories of wetting and drying. The theory also yields a compact collection of formulae for weighted densities and one-body direct correlation functions in the three fundamental geometries, providing useful reference expressions for density-functional implementations. The resulting analytic wall potentials are validated in independent density functional calculations, which confirm that the prescribed flat profiles are recovered within numerical accuracy.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2607.04863,
  title  = {Uniform distributions in nonuniform systems: Wall potentials generating constant density profiles in classical density functional theory},
  author = {Jiří Janek and Alexandr Malijevský},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.04863},
  year   = {2026}
}
R2 v1 2026-07-22T20:26:31.513Z