Phase transitions of two-dimensional dipolar fluids in external fields

In this work, we study condensation phase transitions of two-dimensional Stockmayer fluids under additional external fields using Monte-Carlo (MC) simulations in the grand-canonical ensemble. We employ two recently developed methods to determine phase transitions in fluids, namely Wang-Landau (WL) MC simulations and successive-umbrella (SU) sampling. Considering first systems in zero field (and dipolar coupling strengths mu(2)/epsilon sigma(3) <= 6), we demonstrate that the two techniques yield essentially consistent results but display pronounced differences in terms of efficiency. Indeed, comparing the computation times for these systems on a qualitative level, the SU sampling turns out to be significantly faster. In the presence of homogeneous external fields, however, the SU method becomes plagued by pronounced sampling difficulties, yielding the calculation of coexistence lines essentially impossible. Employing the WL scheme, on the other hand, we find phase coexistence even for strongly field-aligned systems. The corresponding critical temperatures are significantly shifted relative to the zero-field case. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3564916]