Defining the local activity by
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 Eq. (\ref{deltarho}),
- Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle {\delta \ln z({\bf r})\over{\delta\rho({\bf r'})}}={\delta({\bf r}-{\bf r'})\over{\rho({\bf r'})}} \label{deltalnz}-c({\bf r,r'}).}
Inserting Eqs. (\ref{deltarho}) and (\ref{deltalnz}) 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.