Quantum Statistical Theory of Plasmas and Liquid Metals

Journal Article · Fri Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 1958 · Journal of Chemical Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1744472· OSTI ID:4304371

Cowan, Robert D. ^[1]; Kirkwood, John G. ^[2]

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1. University of California, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico
2. Sterling Chemistry Laboratory, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

A Debye-Huckel-type theory is described for an assembly of completely ionized atoms. the nuclei being treated classically and the electrons by the ThomasFermi method. The thermodynamic functions are derived by considering the Debye charging process. and the virial theorem is shown to hold. Numerical results are given for hydrogen and iron near normal solid densities. and are probably accurate only at high temperatures (kT>5 ev for hydrogen and kT> 100 ev for iron). At these temperatures. the results do not differ greatly from those of the ordinary Thomas-Fermi theory of the atom except for the additional contributions of the nuclei.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos Scientific Lab., N. Mex.; Yale Univ., New Haven, Conn.
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• NSA Number: NSA-12-017460
• OSTI ID: 4304371
• Journal Information: Journal of Chemical Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Chemical Physics Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 29; ISSN JCPSA6; ISSN 0021-9606
• Publisher: American Institute of Physics (AIP)
• Country of Publication: Country unknown/Code not available
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ATOMIC MODELS
ATOMS
ELECTRONS
HYDROGEN
IONIZATION
IRON
LIQUID METALS
NUCLEI
NUMERICALS
PLASMA
QUANTUM MECHANICS
STATISTICS
THERMODYNAMICS
THOMAS-FERMI MODEL