Defining the local activity by
where
, and
is the Boltzmann constant.
Using those definitions the grand canonical partition function can be written as
Failed to parse (unknown function "\b"): {\displaystyle \Xi=\sum_N^\infty{1\over N!}\int\dots\int \prod_i^Nz({\b f r}_i)\exp(-\beta U_N){\rm d}{\bf r}_1\dots{\rm d}{\bf r}_N.}
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 (unknown function "\label"): {\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 equation.
Thus the Ornstein-Zernike equation is,
in a sense, a differential form of the partition function.