Free energies from integral equation theories: enforcing path independence.

A variational formalism is constructed for deriving the chemical potential and the Helmholtz free energy in various statistical-mechanical integral equation theories of fluids. Nonzero bridge functions extending the scope of the theories beyond the hypernetted chain approximation can be classified as to whether or not they imply path dependence of the free energy. Classes of bridge functions free of the path dependence problem are derived, based on which a route is devised toward direct computation of free energies from the simulation of a single state.