The structure of the liquid alkali metals

TLDR: In this article, the structure of the liquid simple metals from Li to Pb has been analyzed based on an optimized random phase approximation and on effective interatomic pair potentials derived from pseudopotential perturbation theory.

Abstract: We present calculations of the structure of the liquid alkali-metals, based on the optimized random phase approximation and on effective interatomic pair potentials derived from pseudopotential perturbation theory. In our approach the atomic interactions are decomposed self-consistently into a repulsive short-ranged part and a weak long-range perturbation, the repulsive part being modelled by a hard-sphere reference system via the Weeks-Chandler Andersen functional expansion. We show detailed comparisons with computer-simulation data and with experiment, demonstrating that the optimized random phase approximation with a hard-sphere reference system applies equally well to the liquid alkali metals as to the liquid polyvalent metals. Thus it is a comprehensive description of all liquid simple metals from Li to Pb. The conceptual advantages of this method as compared to other approaches are discussed.