Boyle temperature 2026-10-18
The Boyle temperature is a temperature at which the second virial coefficient vanishes. At that temperature the compressibility factor has no term linear in number density, but higher terms in the virial expansion need not vanish. For a bounded strictly repulsive finite-range pair potential, at every finite positive temperature, with as ; calling its Boyle temperature infinite describes this limiting cancellation, not a finite root.
Compressibility factor 2026-10-18
The compressibility factor is the ratio , where is number density. A classical ideal gas has . The virial expansion writes for a dilute gas; this dimensionless ratio is distinct from isothermal compressibility, which is a response derivative with units of inverse pressure.