Dense hydrogen plasma: Comparison between models

Abstract

Static and dynamical properties of the dense hydrogen plasma ($\ensuremath{\rho}>~2.6{\mathrm{g}\mathrm{}\mathrm{cm}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}3},$ $0.1<T<5\mathrm{eV}$) in the strongly coupled regime are compared through different numerical approaches. It is shown that simplified density-functional molecular-dynamics simulations (DFMD), without orbitals, such as Thomas-Fermi Dirac or Thomas-Fermi-Dirac-Weisz\"acker simulations give similar results to more sophisticated descriptions such as Car-Parrinello (CP), tight binding, or path-integral Monte Carlo, in a wide range of temperatures. At very low temperature, screening effects predicted by DFMD are still less pronounced than CP simulations.