Equation of state of partially-ionized dense plasmas
Abstract
Methods are described for calculating the equation of state of partially-ionized dense plasmas. The term dense plasma is used rather than strongly coupled plasma, since it is possible that at plasma conditions such that only a few levels can be observed spectroscopically the plasma coupling parameters are not large. Due mainly to their importance in theoretical astrophysics, the properties of partially ionized plasmas were of interest for a long while. More recently, this interest has intensified due to the development of methods for producing partially ionized plasmas in the laboratory. This has opened up large programs of experimental investigation and of practical application. Detailed statistical mechanical methods are considered that explicitly treat the distribution over ionic species and their energy level structure. These detailed approaches are generally characterized as being in the chemical picture when a free energy expression is minimized or in the physical picture when the starting point is the grand canonical ensemble.
- Publication:
-
Presented at the Short Course on High-Pressure Equations of State: Theory and Applications
- Pub Date:
- September 1989
- Bibcode:
- 1989hpes.rept.....R
- Keywords:
-
- Dense Plasmas;
- Equations Of State;
- Ionization;
- Statistical Mechanics;
- Canonical Forms;
- Energy Levels;
- Free Energy;
- Gases;
- Statistical Distributions;
- Plasma Physics