An improved description of three-particle correlations in liquids and a modified Born-Green equation

Abstract

The application of the superposition approximation for the three-particle distribution function in a liquid, within the context of the Born-Green equation, is re-examined. It is shown how to correct this approximation for configurations in which one particle is well separated from the other two, and then demonstrated explicitly for the dipole-induced dipole pair potential that this correction is consistent with the known asymptotic expression for the radial distribution function. A modified form of the Born-Green equation is proposed which contains this improved description of triplet correlations.