Optimal three-body correlations and elementary diagrams in liquid He4

Within the framework of the variational theory for strongly interacting Bose liquids, we study the optimal determination of three-body correlation factors. The Euler-Lagrange equation for the three-body correlations suggests an iterative procedure in which the three-body correlation factor is expressed as a series of diagrams containing only the pair distribution function. The long-wavelength behavior of the three-body structure function agrees formally with the prediction of quantum hydrodynamics. The simplest approximation for the optimized three-body correlation function is identical to the prediction of second-order correlated-basis-function perturbation theory. We show that this simplest approximation sums essentially the same sets of diagrams that are included in non-optimized hypernetted-chain calculations with three-body correlations. Along with the three-body correlations we include those elementary diagrams of fourth and fifth order which have a comparable topological structure. The predictions for the ground-state energy and the pair distribution function are substantially improved compared with hypernetted-chain calculations restricted to two-body correlations.