Insulator-Metal Transition Simulation of Nonideal Plasmas

Summary form only given. The transport properties of dense plasmas, which are usually produced by strong shock wave compression or capillary discharge, exhibit nonideal characteristics, e.g., insulator-metal transition, that can not be described by classical theories. This paper presents a practical computational model to evaluate the ionization balances and electrical conductivities of a dense plasma in which the strong Coulomb interactions between ions and electrons taken into account. The correction term in the ionization potential expression is derived by adopting excess free energy fittings given by Chabrier-Potekhin [Phys. Rev. E 58, 4941 (1998)] and Tanaka-Mitake-Ichimaru [Phys. Rev. A 32, 1896 (1985)]. The calculated electrical conductivities of hot dense metal plasmas in their partially ionized regime show reasonable agreements with data measured in experiments including pressure-ionization phenomenon