Computational study of the effective three-ion interaction potentials in liquid metals with high density of electron gas

TL;DR

This study calculates and analyzes three-ion interaction potentials in liquid metals like lead, aluminum, and beryllium, revealing their attractive nature and impact on interatomic distances based on many-body theory.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed calculation of reducible and irreducible three-ion interactions in liquid metals using third-order perturbation theory, highlighting their effects on atomic arrangements.

Findings

Three-ion interactions are attractive at typical interionic distances.

Increasing electron density enhances three-ion interaction contributions.

Reducible three-ion interactions significantly influence potential landscapes in ion clusters.

Abstract

Based on the many-body theory of metals in the third order of the perturbation expansion in electron-ion interaction pseudopotential, the potentials of pair and three-ion interactions are calculated in liquid lead, aluminium and beryllium at their melting temperatures. The reducible and irreducible three-ion interactions have an attractive nature on distances approximately equal to an average distance between ions in metals. It results in the shortening of average interatomic distance in an equilibrium state of metal. The potential landscapes created by a pair of fixed ions relative to the third ion are constructed. It is shown that with increasing of an electronic density the contribution as reducible, that and irreducible three-ion interaction is increased. It is shown also that the influence of reducible three-ion interaction on a potential landscape in a cluster of three ions is considerably larger than influence of irreducible three-ion interaction.