This applet demonstrates the Widom insertion method for calculation of the chemical potential. The simulation is a simple NVT Monte Carlo performed on hard disks. At intervals, the simulation is suspended while attempts are made to insert another disk into the system. For this simple model, the fraction of the attempts that find no overlap gives exp(-mur/kT), where mur is the residual chemical potential (i.e., the value above that of an ideal gas at the same density). The test-insertion is visible as a red disk. The displays report the insertion average (the fraction of non-overlaps) for the most recent attempt, and the average for all attempts since the number of atoms was last changed (using the slider).
Adjustment of the particle number halts the simulation. Press the "Continue" button to restart.