Some non-structural aspects of the theory of metals

This paper is a qualitative discussion of some features of the electronic structure of metals that are almost independent of the arrangement of the atoms. In any densely packed assembly, solid or liquid, the atomic volume fixes the overlap between neighbouring atomic potentials, and hence determines the approximate position of the muffin-tin zero, MTZ, the energy at which a classical electron would be free to move from cell to cell. The general electronic structure of the metal depends upon MTZ and upon the way in which each atomic potential is modified into a muffintin potential.