Virial expansion of the electrical conductivity of hydrogen plasmas

The low-density limit of the electrical conductivity sigma(n, T ) of hydrogen as the simplest ionic plasma is presented as a function of the temperature T and mass density n in the form of a virial expansion of the resistivity. Quantum statistical methods yield exact values for the lowest virial coefficients which serve as a benchmark for analytical approaches to the electrical conductivity as well as for numerical results obtained from density functional theory-based molecular dynamics simulations (DFT-MD) or path-integral Monte Carlo simulations. While these simulations are well suited to calculate sigma(n, T) in a wide range of density and temperature, in particular, for the warm dense matter region, they become computationally expensive in the low-density limit, and virial expansions can be utilized to balance this drawback. We present new results of DFT-MD simulations in that regime and discuss the account of electron-electron collisions by comparison with the virial expansion.

Automated summary

The low-density limit of the electrical conductivity of hydrogen as the simplest ionic plasma is presented as a function of temperature and mass density in the form of a virial expansion of the resistivity. Quantum statistical methods yield exact values for the lowest virial coefficients, serving as a benchmark for analytical approaches and numerical results obtained from simulations.