Premium
Plasma phase transition in warm dense hydrogen
Author(s) -
Norman G.E.,
Saitov I.M.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
contributions to plasma physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.531
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1521-3986
pISSN - 0863-1042
DOI - 10.1002/ctpp.201700101
Subject(s) - ionization , proton , ion , hydrogen , phase transition , materials science , range (aeronautics) , plasma , molecule , ab initio , hydrogen molecule , phase (matter) , atomic physics , molecular physics , physics , thermodynamics , nuclear physics , quantum mechanics , composite material
A new idea is developed that the fluid–fluid phase transition in warm dense hydrogen is related to the partial ionization of molecular hydrogen H 2 with formation of molecular ions H2 + and H3 + . Conventional ab initio quantum modelling is applied. The proton–proton pair correlation functions (PCFs) obtained are used for the non‐conventional diagnostics of the phase transition and elucidation of its nature for temperatures in the range 700–1500 K. Short‐ and long‐range changes of PCFs are studied. Ionization of H 2 molecules and the appearance of molecular ions H2 + and H3 + are revealed. The validity of the soft sphere model is tested for the long‐range order.