Fluids in Extreme Confinement

For extremely confined fluids with two-dimensional density $n$ in slit geometry of accessible width $L$, we prove that in the limit $L\to 0$ the lateral and transversal degrees of freedom decouple, and the latter become ideal-gas-like. For small wall separation the transverse degrees of freedom can be integrated out and renormalize the interaction potential. We identify $n L^2$ as hidden smallness parameter of the confinement problem and evaluate the effective two-body potential analytically, which allows calculating the leading correction to the free energy exactly. Explicitly, we map a fluid of hard spheres in extreme confinement onto a 2d-fluid of disks with an effective hard-core diameter and a soft boundary layer. Two-dimensional phase transitions are robust and the transition point experiences a shift ${\cal O}(n L^2)$.

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