Thomas-Fermi molecular-dynamics, linear screening, and mean-field theories of plasmas

Abstract

Since its introduction in 1985, ab initio molecular dynamics has played an important role in the analysis of ionic properties of condensed-matter systems. Extending this method to a Thomas-Fermi model for plasmas, the structure and diffusion constants from molecular-dynamics simulations of the hydrogen plasma are compared to the results of approximate theories of the same model.