Signature of Short-Range Order in Static Response of the Three-Dimensional Electron Gas

The three-dimensional electron gas is a fundamental model in condensed matter physics and quantum chemistry, and the exchange-correlation energy derived from it serves as the starting point of $\mathit{\text{ab}}\mathit{\text{initio}}$ computations of materials. However, the wave-vector-dependent response, and hence the static local field factor $G(q)$, has remained without accurate ground-state benchmark in the strongly coupled regime for three decades. Using diffusion Monte Carlo, we calculate $G(q)$ and the static density-density response function across the liquid phase and find a pronounced structure in $G(q)$ at intermediate wave vectors, already visible at metallic densities and growing with increasing interaction strength. We identify it as a fingerprint of short-range order by showing that it is required to reproduce the static structure factor. Our parametrization, valid in the entire liquid phase, predicts a low-energy resonant mode inside the particle-hole continuum.