K.A. Green^a, K.D. Luks^a, Eok-Kyun Lee^b and John J. Kozak^b

^a Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
^b Department of Chemistry and Radiation Laboratory, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556

In this paper we report the results of extensive numerical calculations on the equation of state of the square-well fluid in the immediate vicinity of its critical point, with the objective being the precise determination of the critical exponents beta and delta . These determinations were carried out using data generated by solving the Yvon-Born-Green equation for the pair distribution function (with superposition approximation) over an extended range of integration (~50 intermolecular diameters). When taken together with the value of the critical exponent gamma reported previously by the authors ( gamma =1.24กพ0.04), the results obtained, beta =0.330กพ0.008 and delta =4.4กพ0.2, suggest strongly that the essential physics of the gas-liquid transition in the neighborhood of the critical point is described correctly by an integral equation derived from the classical Bogoliubov-Born-Green-Kirkwood-Yvon theory of distribution functions.