Quantum computation of the static structure factor of deuterium gas

The static structure factor of deuterium gas in the critical region is computed within the Feynman-Hibbs quantum approximation for structureless particles complemented with a free-rotor model to describe diatomic molecules. The Ornstein-Zernike equation for the quantum particle centres of mass pair correlation is solved with the use of Baxterʹs equations and Dixon-Hutchinsonʹs variational procedure. Two deconvolutions connect latter information to the atom-atom static structure factor. The computed results are compared with experiment and the accuracy obtained turns out to be excellent for k ⩾ 0.2 Å−1.