An inverse cluster expansion or the chemical potential

Abstract

Interacting particle systems in a finite-volume in equilibrium are often described by a grand-canonical ensemble induced by the corresponding Hamiltonian, i.e. a finite-volume Gibbs measure. However, in practice, directly measuring this Hamiltonian is not possible, as such, methods need to be developed to calculate the Hamiltonian potentials from measurable data. In this work, we give an expansion of the chemical potential in terms of the correlation functions of such a system in the thermodynamic limit. This is a justification of a formal approach of Nettleton and Green from the 50's, that can be seen as an inverse cluster expansion.