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Updated: Apr 12, 2026

Non-equilibrium Microwave Plasma for Efficient High Temperature Chemistry
Published on: August 1, 2017
Cluster virial expansion of the equation of state for hydrogen plasma with e-H(2) contributions
Y A Omarbakiyeva1,2, H Reinholz1,3, G Röpke1
1Institute of Physics, University of Rostock, D-18051 Rostock, Germany.
Abstract:
The equation of state of partially ionized hydrogen plasma is considered with special focus on the contribution of the e-H(2) interaction. Traditional semiempirical concepts such as the excluded volume are improved using microscopic approaches to treat the e-H(2) problem. Within a cluster virial expansion, the Beth-Uhlenbeck formula is applied to infer the contribution of bound and scattering states to the temperature-dependent second virial coefficient. The scattering states are calculated using the phase expansion method for the polarization interaction that incorporates experimental data for the e-H(2) scattering cross section. We present results for the scattering phase shifts, differential scattering cross sections, and the second virial coefficient due to the e-H(2) interaction. The influence of this interaction on the composition of the partially ionized hydrogen plasma is confined to the parameter range where both the H(2) and the free-electron components are abundant.
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