Many-body and quantum effects in the radial distribution function of liquid neon and argon

Most simulations of liquids are performed in the framework of classical mechanics and the approximation of additivity of pair potentials. Besides errors due to the approximate pair potential, this leads to errors due to quantum effects and the neglect of many-body interactions. By calculating the radial distribution function from pure theory for liquid neon and argon with a quantum effective Wigner-Kirkwood potential and comparison with experiments, it is shown that quantum effects are sizeable for liquid neon at lower temperatures, whereas many-body effects are negligible.