Structural and Electronic Aspects of the Phase Transitions of Alkali‐atom Fluids

We present a study of the metal‐nonmetal and liquid‐vapor transitions of alkali‐atom fluids which integrates structural and electronic properties. The techniques are extensions of those used to study liquid metals and the phase transitions of pairwise interacting fluids. Structural correlations beyond mean‐field are found to be of special importance due to the large, electronically induced, cohesion of clusters.