Equilibrium Molecular Dynamics Testing of the Braginskii Transport Coefficients

Equilibrium molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are used to calculate the kinetic, potential, and virial components of transport coefficients in a two-component plasma. Thermal conductivity, electrical conductivity, and the electrothermal and thermoelectric coefficients are obtained using the Green-Kubo formalism over a broad range of Coulomb coupling strength, 0.01 ≤ Γ ≤ 140. These transport coefficients enable first-principles tests due to the absence of assumptions in the simulations and connect the Green-Kubo and Chapman-Enskog solutions from kinetic theory. For the first time, the Braginskii transport coefficients are tested in the weakly coupled regime, showing agreement up to 0.5 Γ.