We present an emph{Effective Static Approximation} (ESA) to the local field correction (LFC) of the electron gas that enables highly accurate calculations of electronic properties like the dynamic structure factor $S(q,omega)$, the static structure factor $S(q)$, and the interaction energy $v$. The ESA combines the recent neural-net representation [textit{J. Chem. Phys.} textbf{151}, 194104 (2019)] of the temperature dependent LFC in the exact static limit with a consistent large wave-number limit obtained from Quantum Monte-Carlo data of the on-top pair distribution function $g(0)$. It is suited for a straightforward integration into existing codes. We demonstrate the importance of the LFC for practical applications by re-evaluating the results of the recent {X-ray Thomson scattering experiment on aluminum} by Sperling textit{et al.}~[textit{Phys. Rev. Lett.} textbf{115}, 115001 (2015)]. We find that an accurate incorporation of electronic correlations {in terms of the ESA} leads to a different prediction of the inelastic scattering spectrum than obtained from state-of-the-art models like the Mermin approach or linear-response time-dependent density functional theory. Furthermore, the ESA scheme is particularly relevant for the development of advanced exchange-correlation functionals in density functional theory.
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