Study of the Exchange-Correlation Thermal Effects for Transport and Optical Properties of Shocked Deuterium

Accurate knowledge of equation of state, transport, and optical properties of matter in a wide range of conditions is of growing importance in many areas of research such as planetary science, astrophysics, and inertial confinement fusion. First-principles methods based on density functional theory (DFT) take into account quantum effects that are essential for warm dense matter (WDM). However, the predictive capability of DFT calculations for WDM depends crucially upon having an exchange-correlation (XC) free-energy functional accurate across temperature regimes. In this talk, we will briefly discuss some details of the formal developments of the new XC free-energy functional that bridges low-temperature (ground-state) and high-temperature (plasma) limits¹ and therefore takes into account the XC thermal effects. Optical properties of shocked deuterium are calculated within the Kubo–Greenwood formulation with use of the thermal XC functional. The calculated reflectivities of shocked deuterium are compared with recent experiments on OMEGA.

[1] V. V. Karasiev, J. W. Duffy, and S. B. Trickey, Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 076401 (2018).