Analytical representation of the higher virial coefficients of binary mixtures of additive hard spheres

Approximate expressions for the fourth and fifth virial coefficients of binary hard-sphere fluid mixtures are derived. The procedure used to obtain these expressions is based on that previously proposed by Wheatley [J. chem. Phys., 111, 5455 (1999)], but slightly modified. Wheatley's procedure starts from a prescribed general analytical form of the virial coefficients, from which the particular expression for each virial coefficient is obtained by imposing to the general form a number of limiting conditions. Here, we propose an alternative general expression of the virial coefficients and derive one more condition. This condition is satisfied when the fourth and fifth virial coefficients are expressed in the form we propose, but not when they are expressed in Wheatley's form. The agreement of the proposed analytical expressions with exact numerical data is excellent. The procedure can be extended to higher virial coefficients, although the lack of exact numerical data prevents any comparison.