Electron-ion structure factors and the general accuracy of linear response

Abstract We show that electron–ion structure factors in fluid metallic systems can be well understood from an application of linear response in the electron system, combined with hard-sphere-like correlation for the ionic component. In particular, we predict that electron–ion structure factors fall into two general classes, one for high (Z > 3) and one for low (Z⩽2) valence metals, and make suggestions for experiments to test these ideas. In addition, we show how the general success of electronic linear response for most metallic systems stems in part from an intrinsic interference between atomic and electronic length scales which weakens the nonlinear response. The main exception to this is metallic hydrogen.