Thermodynamic Functions of Dense Plasmas: Analytic Approximations for Astrophysical Applications

We briefly review analytic approximations of thermodynamic functions of fully ionized nonideal electron-ion plasmas, applicable in a wide range of plasma parameters, including the domains of nondegenerate and degenerate, nonrelativistic and relativistic electrons, weakly and strongly coupled Coulomb liquids, classical and quantum Coulomb crystals. We present improvements to previously published approximations. Our code for calculation of thermodynamic functions based on the reviewed approximations is made publicly available. (C) 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim