DYNAMIC CORRELATIONS IN A DENSE DIPOLAR LIQUID

The microscopic dynamics of liquid sulphur dioxide is investigated by means of the concurrent use of inelastic neutron scattering and molecu lar dynamics simulations. This enables an approximate separation of th e dynamic processes contributing to the neutron spectra, thus allowing us to quantify the deviation from idealized behavior of quantities ch aracterizing the single-particle and collective motions. From a compar ison between experiment and simulation, an estimate of an inelastic st ructure factor comprising information about the extent of orientationa l correlations is derived. Finally, the relevance of the present resul ts as benchmarks to assess recent predictions is discussed.