The stability limit of the fluid phase of polydisperse sticky spheres

It has been shown by Stell [J. Stat. Phys., 63, 1203 (1991)] that at low temperature monodisperse sticky spheres collapse to form coexisting close-packed solid and infinitely dilute gases. We show that polydisperse sticky spheres also collapse and calculate the collapse temperature. The polydisperse spheres separate into fractions with narrower polydispersities which can then solidify. This is perhaps the first example of a single-peaked polydisperse mixture phase solidifying and separating. It implies that a mixture of polydisperse large hard spheres with much smaller hard spheres does not show fluid–fluid coexistence. ∗Permanent address: Department of Physics, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey GU2 5XH, United Kingdom