Efficient model for electronic transport in high energy-density matter

Abstract

A wide-ranging effective Boltzmann approach, originally intended for ionic transport, is applied to the computation of electronic transport coefficients without modification. Comparisons with datasets that resulted from a recent transport coefficient workshop and molecular dynamics simulations are made. While this model contains correlation information through its effective potential and strong scattering through its use of cross sections, it misses details of attractive, possibly quantum, interactions; comparisons with that dataset reveal the relative importance of these physics inputs. Through comparisons of data for electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, temperature relaxation, and stopping power (including a new formula for the energy split due to alpha stopping), we find that the sensitivity to the missing physics is minor and often negligible. Thus, we have a single transport model that self-consistently provides all ionic and electronic transport properties in a form with negligible computational cost.