The correlation between local chemical environment and atomic displacements
in disordered CuAu alloy has been studied using Monte Carlo simulations ba
sed on the effective medium theory of metallic cohesion. These simulations
correctly reproduce the chemically specific nearest-neighbour distances in
the random alloy across the entire CuxAu1-x concentration range. In the ran
dom equiatomic CuAu alloy, the chemically specific pair distances depend st
rongly on the local atomic environment (i.e. fraction of like/unlike neares
t neighbours). In CuAu alloy with short-range order, the relationship betwe
en local environment and displacements remains qualitatively similar. Howev
er, the increase in short-range order causes the average Cu-Au distance to
decrease below the average Cu-Cu distance, as it does in the ordered CuAuI
phase. Many of these trends can be understood qualitatively from the differ
ent neutral sphere radii and compressibilities of the Cu and Au atoms.