Mean force emission theory for classical bremsstrahlung in strongly coupled plasmas

This work presents mean force emission theory, which extends the classical theory of bremsstrahlung emission to strongly coupled plasmas. In the high-frequency limit, the theory reduces to solving for the electron trajectory during a binary collision, but where the electron–ion interactions occur th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physics of plasmas 2024-05, Vol.31 (5)
Main Authors: Kinney, J. P., LeFevre, H. J., Kuranz, C. C., Baalrud, S. D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
Bremsstrahlung
Collisions
Computer simulation
Electron trajectories
Emission
First principles
High energy density physics
Hydrogen plasma
Kinetic theory
Molecular dynamics
Plasmas
Strongly coupled plasmas
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Summary:This work presents mean force emission theory, which extends the classical theory of bremsstrahlung emission to strongly coupled plasmas. In the high-frequency limit, the theory reduces to solving for the electron trajectory during a binary collision, but where the electron–ion interactions occur through the potential of mean force. In the low-frequency limit, it uses an autocorrelation formalism that captures effects of multiple collisions and strongly correlated motion. The predictions are benchmarked by comparison with first-principles classical molecular dynamics simulations of a fully ionized hydrogen plasma in which all interactions are repulsive. The comparison shows good agreement up to Coulomb coupling strengths of Γ ∼ 30. The theory improves upon traditional models by including strong coupling effects and systematically including the effect of multiple collisions. Furthermore, mean force emission theory provides evidence that the Drude correction factor commonly used in quantum calculations of optical quantities may not be adequate at strong coupling.
ISSN:1070-664X
1089-7674
DOI:10.1063/5.0202211