Dielectric constant of Ne near its liquid-vapor critical point

Abstract

We report high-resolution measurements of the static dielectric constant $\epsilon$ of neon near its critical point along nine isochores with densities ranging from $0.85{\rho }_c$ to $1.15{\rho }_c$, ${\rho }_c$ being the critical density. These measurements were conducted to search for the predicted divergence in ${\left(\frac{\partial \epsilon }{\partial T}\right)}_{{\rho }_c}$ near $T_c$. We did not find any anomaly in the dielectric constant in either the one-phase ($T>\mathrm{}{T}_c$) or the two-phase ($T<\mathrm{}{T}_c$) regions within our experimental uncertainty of $\delta \epsilon =3\mathrm{}\times {10}^{-7\mathrm{}} \mathrm{and} 5\times {10}^{-6\mathrm{}}$, respectively.