Revealing liquid–gas transitions with finite-size scaling in experimental and simulation systems confined by an external field

The application of an external field often renders empirical criteria for identifying liquid-gas phase transitions ambiguous. Here, we demonstrate that the finite-size scaling of the density profile provides a definitive criterion to distinguish liquid-gas coexistence from a single fluid phase in field-confined systems. Our scaling method collapses the density profiles of different system sizes onto a single master curve for a one-phase system, while causing the profiles to intersect at the interface in a two-phase system. We validate this theoretical proposal through experiments and simulations of two model systems: colloidal suspensions under gravity and two-dimensional complex plasmas confined by a central potential. Our method is broadly applicable for detecting liquid-gas phase transitions in laboratory systems where external fields are inherent.