Defining the local activity by
![{\displaystyle \left.z(r)\right.=z\exp[-\beta \psi (r)]}](https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/media/math/render/svg/5711f24c6b0fa5613ba4f87e59d553408e7c4da9)
where
, and
is the Boltzmann constant.
Using those definitions the grand canonical partition function can be written as
.
By functionally-differentiating
with respect to
, and utilizing the mathematical theorem concerning the functional derivative,
,
we get the following equations with respect to the density pair correlation functions.
,
.
A relation between
and
can be obtained after some manipulation as,

Now, we define the direct correlation function by an inverse relation of the previous equation,

Inserting these two reults into the chain-rule theorem of functional derivatives,
,
one obtains the Ornstein-Zernike relation.
Thus the Ornstein-Zernike relation is,
in a sense, a differential form of the partition function.