Alternative fundamental measure theory for additive hard sphere mixtures

The purpose of this short paper is to present an alternative fundamental measure theory (FMT) for hard sphere mixtures. Keeping the main features of the original Rosenfeld's FMT [Phys. Rev. Lett. 63, 980 (1989)] and using the dimensional and the low-density limit conditions a new functional is derived incorporating Boublik's multicomponent extension [Mol. Phys. 59, 371 (1986)] of highly accurate Kolafa's equation of state for pure hard spheres. We test the theory for pure hard spheres and hard sphere mixtures near a planar hard wall and compare the results with the original Rosenfeld's FMT and one of its modifications and with new very accurate simulation data. The test reveals an excellent agreement between the results based on the alternative FMT and simulation data for density profile near a contact and some improvement over the original Rosenfeld's FMT and its modification at the contact region. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.