Sum-Rule Analysis of Long-Wavelength Excitations in Electron Liquids

Abstract

The properties of the plasma oscillations, the single-particle excitations and the collisional excitations in the classical one-component plasma are investigated in the long-wavelength domain with the aid of moment sum rules. The frequency moments of the dynamic form factor are calculated up to that term which involves the ternary correlation function. The dispersion in the plasma-wave frequency and the strengths of the single-particle and collisional excitations are computed over the thermodynamically stable domain of the plasma parameter, ε≲10. It is emphasized that inclusion of the collisional excitations plays a vital part in satisfying various moment-sum rules and in securing agreement with known boundary conditions such as the Vlasov description and molecular-dynamics computations.