Use of state-dependent pair potentials in describing the structural and thermodynamic properties of noble gases

Understanding the interatomic interactions in noble gases remains one of the fundamental problems not completely solved to date. From small-angle neutron scattering experiments it is well-known that three-body forces exist and cannot be neglected. On the theoretical side, semi-analytic and simulation methods have been used to reveal the nature of these many-body interactions. The purpose of the present work is to provide an overview of the different three-body contributions to the interactions and their relative importance in describing the structural and thermodynamic properties for noble gases by means of the integral equation theory and molecular dynamics simulations. We examine the relevance of the effective state-dependent pair potential in this framework, as well as the self-consistency problem that we are faced with in the integral equation theory.