  Lattice and continuum fluid models with repulsive-core interactions typically
display a dominant, critical-type singularity on the real, negative activity
axis. Lai and Fisher recently suggested, mainly on numerical grounds, that this
repulsive-core singularity is universal and in the same class as the Yang-Lee
edge singularities, which arise above criticality at complex activities with
positive real part. A general analytic demonstration of this identification is
presented here using a field-theory approach with separate representation of
the repulsive and attractive parts of the pair interactions.
