Equation of state and electronic transport properties of dense liquid hydrogen

We present extensive first-principles calculations of the equation of state and electronic transport properties of hydrogen across a wide density (0.2<ρ<70 g/cm3) and temperature (103<T<106 K) regime, encompassing conditions relevant to giant planet interiors, stellar envelopes, and inertial confinement fusion plasmas. Simulations employed the strongly constrained appropriate normed exchange–correlation functional at low temperatures to capture bonding effects, with systematic comparison to the Perdew–Burke–Ernzerhof exchange–correlation functional. The equation of state data recover the ideal gas and fully ionized plasma limits. Analysis of internal energies and pair distribution functions reveals the crossover between correlated liquids and degeneracy-dominated plasmas. Electronic transport coefficients were obtained via the Kubo–Greenwood formalism. The electrical conductivity exhibits an inversion region near ρ∼1–10 g/cm3, where degeneracy and coupling parameters are of order unity, marking the transition from molecular to metallic hydrogen. The thermal conductivity rises monotonically with increasing density and temperature, bridging between the Wiedemann–Franz behavior in the degenerate regime and the Spitzer scaling in the classical limit. The Seebeck coefficient remains negative, vanishing in the degenerate limit and converging to the classical asymptote at high T and low ρ. Comparisons with analytical models, including Chabrier–Potekhin [Chabrier and Potekhin, Phys. Rev. E 58, 4941 (1998)] and Kleinschmidt–Redmer [Kleinschmidt and Redmer, Matter Radiat. Extremes 10, 047602 (2025)], show good agreement within their respective validity regimes. Our data set provides a high-accuracy benchmark for warm dense hydrogen and a reliable reference for applications such as planetary modeling, stellar structure calculations, and ICF design.

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Publication Details

Journal
Physics of Plasmas
Published
2026-02-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0311737
Primary Topic
High-pressure geophysics and materials
Type
article
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article

Equation of state and electronic transport properties of dense liquid hydrogen

Armin Bergermann, R. Redmer, Uwe Kleinschmidt, S. H. Glenzer
Physics of Plasmas
High-pressure geophysics and materials
article

Equation of state and electronic transport properties of dense liquid hydrogen

Armin Bergermann, R. Redmer, Uwe Kleinschmidt, S. H. Glenzer
article en

Abstract

We present extensive first-principles calculations of the equation of state and electronic transport properties of hydrogen across a wide density (0.2<ρ<70 g/cm3) and temperature (103<T<106 K) regime, encompassing conditions relevant to giant planet interiors, stellar envelopes, and inertial confinement fusion plasmas. Simulations employed the strongly constrained appropriate normed exchange–correlation functional at low temperatures to capture bonding effects, with systematic comparison to the Perdew–Burke–Ernzerhof exchange–correlation functional. The equation of state data recover the ideal gas and fully ionized plasma limits. Analysis of internal energies and pair distribution functions reveals the crossover between correlated liquids and degeneracy-dominated plasmas. Electronic transport coefficients were obtained via the Kubo–Greenwood formalism. The electrical conductivity exhibits an inversion region near ρ∼1–10 g/cm3, where degeneracy and coupling parameters are of order unity, marking the transition from molecular to metallic hydrogen. The thermal conductivity rises monotonically with increasing density and temperature, bridging between the Wiedemann–Franz behavior in the degenerate regime and the Spitzer scaling in the classical limit. The Seebeck coefficient remains negative, vanishing in the degenerate limit and converging to the classical asymptote at high T and low ρ. Comparisons with analytical models, including Chabrier–Potekhin [Chabrier and Potekhin, Phys. Rev. E 58, 4941 (1998)] and Kleinschmidt–Redmer [Kleinschmidt and Redmer, Matter Radiat. Extremes 10, 047602 (2025)], show good agreement within their respective validity regimes. Our data set provides a high-accuracy benchmark for warm dense hydrogen and a reliable reference for applications such as planetary modeling, stellar structure calculations, and ICF design.

Physics of PlasmasVol. 33(2)
Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (DE), SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (US), University of Rostock (DE)
Openalex Percentile: Top 72%
High-pressure geophysics and materials
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