Structure and Resistivity of Liquid Metals

Ion-ion repulsion in a liquid metal is regarded as the principal factor determining the ionic arrangement. This interaction is idealized in a hard-sphere model; the known solution of the Percus-Yevick equation for this model gives a simple closed form for $a(K)$ (the liquid structure factor) which depends only on the effective packing density of the fluid. This fact enables us to make an estimate for the resistivities of most liquid metals for which model potentials are available. Agreement with experiment is generally good, particularly when the potential is known to be accurate. The sensitivity of the resistivity to the depth of the model potential well is indicated.