Globally accurate theory of structure and thermodynamics for soft-matter liquids

Standard statistical mechanical approximations (e.g. mean-field approximations) for pair-correlation functions of strongly interacting systems that yield adequate thermodynamics away from critical points typically break down badly in critical regions. The self-consistent Ornstein-Zemike approximation (SCOZA) transcends this difficulty, yielding globally accurate Structure and thermodynamics. The SCOZA has been applied successfully to a variety of Hamiltonian models and the result will be briefly summarized. We end with a progress report on the applications of the SCOZA to some soft-matter systems. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.