Electrical and thermal conductivities of dense matter in the liquid metal phase. I - High-temperature results

Abstract

Electrical and thermal conductivities are calculated for the dense matter in the liquid metal phase for various elemental compositions of astrophysical importance. The calculation takes account of the best knowledge available on the structure factor of the ions in the high-temperature, classical limit and the dielectric screening due to degenerate electrons. The numerical results are parameterized in analytic formulae that would facilitate practical uses of the results. An overall accuracy of about 1 percent has been retained for most of the analytic formulae. Compared with the results of the present calculation, it is found that Yakovlev and Urpin's (1980) results overestimate the resistivity (underestimate the conductivity) by 30-60 percent at relatively low densities.