Using a combination of Monte Carlo techniques, we locate the liquid-vapor critical point of adhesive hard spheres. We find that the critical point lies deep inside the gel region of the phase diagram. The (reduced) critical temperature and density are ${\tau }_c=0.1133\pm 0.0005$ and ${\rho }_c=0.508\pm 0.01$. We compare these results with the available theoretical predictions. Using a finite-size scaling analysis, we verify that the critical behavior of the adhesive hard sphere model is consistent with that of the 3D Ising universality class, the default for systems with short-range attractive forces.

• Received 6 December 2002

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.135702