Surface tension of the three-dimensional Lennard-Jones fluid from histogram-reweighting Monte Carlo simulations

The surface tension of the full three-dimensional Lennard-Jones potential is calculated from grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations with the finite-size scaling methodology outlined by Binder [Phys. Rev. A 25, 1699 (1982)]. Surface tensions are determined for the range of reduced temperatures T*=0.95–1.312 and are found to be in good agreement with molecular-dynamics calculations. A critical temperature Tc*=1.311±0.002 is established by locating the T* where the surface tension of the infinite system size vanishes. In addition, with this method it is possible to determine the critical exponent 2ν. For the Lennard-Jones fluid we found 2ν=1.42±0.08, which differs from the accepted value of 2ν=1.26.