Lenard‐Balescu Calculations and Classical Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Electrical and Thermal Conductivities of Hydrogen Plasmas

Abstract

AbstractWe present a discussion of kinetic theory treatments of linear electrical and thermal transport in hydrogen plasmas, for a regime of interest to inertial confinement fusion applications. In order to assess the accuracy of one of the more involved of these approaches, classical Lenard‐Balescu theory, we perform classical molecular dynamics simulations of hydrogen plasmas using 2‐body quantum statistical potentials and compute both electrical and thermal conductivity from our particle trajectories using the Kubo approach. Our classical Lenard‐Balescu results employing the identical statistical potentials agree well with the simulations. Comparison between quantum Lenard‐Balescu and classical Lenard‐Balescu for conductivities then allows us to both validate and critique the use of various statistical potentials for the prediction of plasma transport properties. These findings complement our earlier MD/kinetic theory work on temperature equilibration [1], and reach similar conclusions as to which forms of statistical potentials best reproduce true quantum behavior. (© 2015 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)