Electronic Properties of Liquid Metals

It is shown that an approximation for the n-body ionic correlation permits the generalization of nearly free-electron formulas for some of the electronic properties of liquid metals. The electrical resistivity is considered in detail and it is shown that a result identical in form to that due to Ziman can be obtained, but in terms of an effective potential involving both the electron-ion potential and the static structure factor. Some further assumptions are necessary for this effective potential to be approximately evaluated. The numerical work strongly indicates that the effective potential differs little from the commonly used pseudopotentials. Finally, generalized expressions are obtained for the electrical resistivity and Knight shift for liquid metal alloys.