Microscopic simulation of a strongly coupled hydrogen plasma

Abstract

Results of "molecular dynamics" simulations are reported for a model of a fully ionized strongly coupled hydrogen plasma. Quantum effects are taken into account through the use of effective pair potentials; at short distances, these differ significantly from the bare Coulomb potential. Static properties of the plasma are shown to be well described by hypernetted chain theory. The ion- and electron-velocity autocorrelation functions have been computed and the electrical conductivity turns out to be roughly twice that expected on the basis of the electron self-diffusion coefficient. The predictions of Vlasov theory for the damping and dispersion of the plasmon mode are found to be in generally poor agreement with the results of the computer "experiments", but the collective dynamical properties are successfully described by a memory-function scheme in which explicit account is taken of ion-electron correlations. Prospects for future work are briefly reviewed.