Structural and dynamic properties of dense hydrogen plasmas from semi-classical molecular dynamics simulations

Semi-classical molecular dynamics simulations with effective pair potentials are performed to compute structural and dynamic properties of dense hydrogen plasmas at weak to moderate degeneracy. The structural properties are compared with published data from first-principle path integral Monte Carlo simulations. The improved Kelbg potential [Filinov et al., Phys. Rev. E 70, 046411 (2004)] accurately reproduces the electron–electron, electron–proton, and proton–proton pair correlations. The electron–electron and proton–proton dynamical structure factors are compared with results from wave-packet molecular dynamics simulations [Svensson et al., Phys. Rev. E 110, 055205 (2024)]. While qualitative agreement is found for the electron dynamical properties, excellent agreement is obtained for the ion-acoustic speed. Comparison with one-component plasma models for an almost fully ionized plasma shows that the ionic dynamic structure factor can be reproduced accurately with a system of Yukawa interacting particles, whereas a Coulomb one-component plasma fails to account for the increased damping of the plasmon mode in hydrogen.