Exchange-Correlation Effects in Screening Models of Dense Plasmas

Electron screening of ions is among the most fundamental properties of plasmas, determining the effective ionic interactions that impact all properties of a plasma. With the development of experimental facilities that probe high energy-density (HED) physics regimes ranging from warm dense matter to hot dense matter, an accurate and computationally efficient description of dense plasma screening has become essential. We employ the work done by Stanton and Murillo [Phys. Rev. E, 91, 033104 (2015)], which provides a unified framework for screening models based on finite-temperature orbital-free density functional theory, including gradient corrections and exchange-correlation effects. Here, we further investigate a variety of exchange-correlation models, which are rarely used in simple screening models, and quantify the impact of their contributions across the HED regime with applications such as transport and equation of state. The results are compared to numerical calculations from high-fidelity physics simulations in the literature.