Potential of mean force for electrical conductivity of dense plasmas

Abstract

The electrical conductivity in dense plasmas can be calculated with the relaxation-time approximation provided that the interaction potential between the scattering electron and the ion is known. To date there has been considerable uncertainty as to the best way to define this interaction potential so that it correctly includes the effects of ionic structure, screening by electrons and partial ionization. Current approximations lead to significantly different results with varying levels of agreement when compared to bench-mark calculations and experiments. We present a new way to define this potential, drawing on ideas from classical fluid theory to define a potential of mean force. This new potential results in significantly improved agreement with experiments and bench mark calculations, and includes all the aforementioned physics self-consistently.

References in corpus (8)

• Electronic transport coefficients from ab initio simulations and application to dense liquid hydrogen
• The static and dynamic conductivity of warm dense Aluminum and Gold calculated within a density functional approach
• Density-functional calculations of transport properties in the non-degenerate limit and the role of electron-electron scattering
• Ionic and electronic transport properties in dense plasmas by orbital-free density functional theory
• An integral equation model for warm and hot dense mixtures
• Kubo-Greenwood approach to conductivity in dense plasmas with average atom models
• Resistivity in warm dense plasmas beyond the average-atom model
• Electron conduction along quantizing magnetic fields in neutron star crusts. II. Practical formulae

Cited by in corpus (14)

• Current challenges in the physics of white dwarf stars
• Review of the First Charged-Particle Transport Coefficient Comparison Workshop
• New Conductive Opacities for White Dwarf Envelopes
• A Model of Electron Transport in Dense Plasmas Spanning Temperature Regimes
• Theory of the electron-ion temperature relaxation rate spanning the hot solid metals and plasma phases
• A Kinetic Model for Electron-Ion Transport in Warm Dense Matter
• Coulomb Log for Conductivity of Dense Plasmas
• Plasma opacity calculations using the Starrett and Saumon average-atom model with ion correlations
• Platform for Probing Radiation Transport Properties of Hydrogen at Conditions Found in the Deep Interiors of Red Dwarfs
• Tabular Electrical Conductivity for Aluminum
• Correlations Between Conduction Electrons in Dense Plasmas
• Model for the electrical conductivity in dense plasma mixtures
• Optical and Transport Properties of Plasma Mixtures from Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics
• Collisional stopping power of ions in warm dense matter