  We report high-resolution Compton profiles (CP's) of Al along the three
principal symmetry directions at a photon energy of 59.38 keV, together with
corresponding highly accurate theoretical profiles obtained within the
local-density approximation (LDA) based band-theory framework. A good accord
between theory and experiment is found with respect to the overall shapes of
the CP's, their first and second derivatives, as well as the anisotropies in
the CP's defined as differences between pairs of various CP's. There are
however discrepancies in that, in comparison to the LDA predictions, the
measured profiles are lower at low momenta, show a Fermi cutoff which is
broader, and display a tail which is higher at momenta above the Fermi
momentum. A number of simple model calculations are carried out in order to
gain insight into the nature of the underlying 3D momentum density in Al, and
the role of the Fermi surface in inducing fine structure in the CP's. The
present results when compared with those on Li show clearly that the size of
discrepancies between theoretical and experimental CP's is markedly smaller in
Al than in Li. This indicates that, with increasing electron density, the
conventional picture of the electron gas becomes more representative of the
momentum density and that shortcomings of the LDA framework in describing the
electron correlation effects become less important.
