Electronic transport coefficients from density functional theory across the plasma plane

Area of Science:

• Plasma physics
• Condensed matter theory
• Computational physics

Background:

• Understanding transport properties of hydrogen plasma is crucial for various applications.
• Existing theoretical models often rely on approximations that may not capture all relevant physics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the thermopower and Lorenz number of hydrogen plasma using Kohn-Sham density functional theory (DFT).
• To assess the validity of the Kubo-Greenwood (KG) formalism and Drude-like models for plasma transport properties.
• To elucidate the role of electron-electron scattering in weakly degenerate and coupled plasma states.

Main Methods:

• Kohn-Sham density functional theory (DFT) calculations.
• Analysis of thermopower and Lorenz number across the plasma plane.
• Comparison with the Lorentz plasma model and kinetic theory (relaxation time approximation).

Main Results:

• DFT calculations show results consistent with the Lorentz plasma model in specific limits.
• The Kubo-Greenwood (KG) formalism was found to neglect electron-electron scattering.
• The assumption of Drude-like frequency behavior for nondegenerate plasma conductivity is inadequate.

Conclusions:

• The widely used Kubo-Greenwood (KG) formalism is insufficient for accurately describing hydrogen plasma transport properties due to its neglect of electron-electron scattering.
• Kinetic theory and DFT provide a more comprehensive framework for understanding plasma behavior, particularly in weakly degenerate and coupled regimes.
• Further refinement of theoretical models is needed to incorporate electron-electron interactions for accurate plasma simulations.