Using the generalized thermal adiabatic connection to analyze and build exchange-correlation free energy approximations

Warm dense matter is a highly energetic phase found within planetary cores that exhibits properties of both plasmas and solids. Thermal density functional theory is commonly used to simulate this challenging phase, driving development of temperature-dependent approximations to the exchange-correlation free energy. The generalized thermal adiabatic connection (GTAC) introduces a fictitious temperature parameter in order to connect ground-state approximations to their finite-temperature counterparts. This approach will be demonstrated as an analytical tool and as a means to generate new approximations to entropic and kinetic free energy components.