Defining the local activity by
![{\displaystyle z(r)=z\exp[-\beta \psi (r)]}](https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/media/math/render/svg/15e4366ba5664e1af5402b07e6aa112fa4214c2f)
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}),

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.