Dynamical current correlations in simple liquids

Expressions for the longitudinal and transverse current correlation functions of simple liquids are obtained using Mori's formalism. These involve unknown damping functions. The use of damping functions for a free gas gives results which are in complete disagreement with experiments. The results obtained on the basis of a renormalized free particle memory function in which the collisional damping of collective excitations is incorporated show remarkable improvement over earlier results and are in reasonable agreement with the molecular dynamics data of Rahman. Therefore, the choice of the memory function is as important as the satisfaction of lower order moments.