Liquid-vapor transition of systems with mean field universality class

We have considered a system where the interaction, v ( r ) = v IS ( r ) + ξ 2 v MF ( r ) , is given as a linear combination of two potentials, each of which being characterized with a well-defined critical behavior: for v IS ( r ) we have chosen the potential of the restricted primitive model which is known to belong to the three-dimensional Ising universality class, while for v MF ( r ) we have considered a long-range interaction in the Kac [ J. Math. Phys. 4 , 216 ( 1963 )] limit, displaying mean field (MF) behavior. We study the performance of two theoretical approaches and of computer simulations in the critical region for this particular system and give a detailed comparison between theories and simulation of the critical region and the location of the critical point. Having shown by theoretical arguments that the system belongs to the MF universality class for any positive value of ξ and shows nonclassical behavior only for ξ = 0 , we examine to which extent theoretical approximations and simulation can reproduce this behavior. While in this limiting case theoretical approaches are known to fail, we find good agreement for the critical properties between the theoretical approaches and the simulations for ξ 2 larger than 0.05.