About applicability of thermodynamic parameters to small drops and clusters

In our paper the results of molecular dynamics calculations of nanodrops are presented. The density profiles, the Irving-Kirkwood pressure tensors, the chemical potentials of the systems, the equimolar radii of the drops and the radii of tension, the mechanical and thermodynamic surface tensions have been calculated. It is shown that both the mechanical and thermodynamic surface tensions decrease with the decrease of the equimolar radius of the drop and reach zero at the same R0 depending on temperature. With the further equimolar radius decrease the surface tension becomes negative. It means that such droplet is metastable and that the notion of the macroscopic surface tension cannot be applied to such small drops. The dependence of the ratio of the drop surface tension to the surface tension of the flat liquid-vapor interface on the ratio of the drop equimolar radius to R0 is a universal function.