We use a two-fluid model combining the quantum Greens function technique for the electrons and a classical HNC description for the ions to calculate the high-density equation of state of hydrogen. This approach allows us to describe fully ionized plasmas of any electron degeneracy and any ionic coupling strength which are important for the modeling of a variety of astrophysical objects and inertial confinement fusion targets. We have also performed density functional molecular dynamics simulations (DFT-MD) and show that the data obtained agree with our approach in the high density limit. Good agreement is also found between DFT-MD and quantum Monte Carlo simulations. The thermodynamic properties of dense hydrogen can thus be obtained for the entire density range using only calculations in the physical picture.
Equation of state for partially ionized carbon at temperatures T > ~ 10^5 K is calculated in a wide range of densities, using the method of free energy minimization in the framework of the chemical picture of plasmas. The free energy model includes the internal partition functions of bound species. The latter are calculated by a self-consistent treatment of each ionization stage in the plasma environment taking into account pressure ionization. The long-range Coulomb interactions between ions and screening of the ions by free electrons are included using our previously published analytical model.
Recently, observations of compact stars have provided new data of high accuracy which put strong constraints on the high-density behaviour of the equation of state of strongly interacting matter otherwise not accessible in terrestrial laboratories. The evidence for neutron stars with high mass (M =2.1 +/- 0.2 M_sun for PSR J0751+1807) and large radii (R > 12 km for RX J1856-3754) rules out soft equations of state and has provoked a debate whether the occurence of quark matter in compact stars can be excluded as well. In this contribution it is shown that modern quantum field theoretical approaches to quark matter including color superconductivity and a vector meanfield allow a microscopic description of hybrid stars which fulfill the new, strong constraints. The deconfinement transition in the resulting stiff hybrid equation of state is weakly first order so that signals of it have to be expected due to specific changes in transport properties governing the rotational and cooling evolution caused by the color superconductivity of quark matter. A similar conclusion holds for the investigation of quark deconfinement in future generations of nucleus-nucleus collision experiments at low temperatures and high baryon densities such as CBM @ FAIR.
We calculate the equation of state of dense hydrogen within the chemical picture. Fluid variational theory is generalized for a multi-component system of molecules, atoms, electrons, and protons. Chemical equilibrium is supposed for the reactions dissociation and ionization. We identify the region of thermodynamic instability which is related to the plasma phase transition. The reflectivity is calculated along the Hugoniot curve and compared with experimental results. The equation-of-state data is used to calculate the pressure and temperature profiles for the interior of Jupiter.
We present and discuss a wide-range hydrogen equation of state model based on a consistent set of ab initio simulations including quantum protons and electrons. Both the process of constructing this model and its predictions are discussed in detail. The cornerstones of this work are the specification of simple physically motivated free energy models, a general multiparameter/multiderivative fitting method, and the use of the most accurate simulation methods to date. The resulting equation of state aims for a global range of validity ($T = 1-10^9 K$ and $V_m = 10^{-9}-1 m^3/mol$), as the models are specifically constructed to reproduce exact thermodynamic and mechanical limits. Our model is for the most part analytic or semianalytic and is thermodynamically consistent by construction; the problem of interpolating between distinctly different models -often a cause for thermodynamic inconsistencies and spurious discontinuities- is avoided entirely.
The equation of state (EOS) for partially ionized carbon, oxygen, and carbon-oxygen mixtures at temperatures 3times10^5 K <~ T <~ 3times10^6 K is calculated over a wide range of densities, using the method of free energy minimization in the framework of the chemical picture of plasmas. The free energy model is an improved extension of our model previously developed for pure carbon (Phys. Rev. E, 72, 046402; arXiv:physics/0510006). The internal partition functions of bound species are calculated by a self-consistent treatment of each ionization stage in the plasma environment taking into account pressure ionization. The long-range Coulomb interactions between ions and screening of the ions by free electrons are included using our previously published analytical model, recently improved, in particular for the case of mixtures. We also propose a simple but accurate method of calculation of the EOS of partially ionized binary mixtures based on detailed ionization balance calculations for pure substances.